The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Park Service are one step closer to reducing noise pollution in Grand Canyon National Park. Documents released by the FAA earlier this month put a temporary freeze on the number of commercial air tours over the park, the main source of noise pollution. According to the group, disturbances in the park, measured at more than four times the normal background level, forced peregrine falcons to abandon their nests and bighorn sheep to leave their isolated mountain tops. She has heard aircraft from down in the canyon. It is a consant noise.
People hike for days to experience that solitude but they are constantly bombarded by that noise.
Until the NPS and FAA analyze noise conditions and develop a comprehensive noise management plan, the freeze on commercial air tours will stay in effect. Twenty-three air tour companies will be allowed to operate in the park, limited to a set number of flights, for the year 2000. Through the National Parks Overflights Act in 1987, Congress instructed the NPS and the FAA to work together to substantially restore the natural quiet and experience of the park. The FAA enacted a rule the next year establishing minimum altitudes and flight-free zones over the park. In 1996, President Clinton issued an executive order directing the agencies to work together to restore natural quiet to the park by 2008.