An overview of U.S. noise policy

The change from propeller aircraft to jet engines in the 1950s provided much of the impetus for development of national (federal) noise policies regarding noise from aircraft and other environmental noise sources in the U.S. Through the 1970s and early 1980s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other national organizations participated in the development of a series of federal noise regulations and guidelines. This paper provides an overview of the noise policies that have been developed since about 1970, and, in the case of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the EPA, provides a brief review of the successes and failures of their policies. We briefly describe the major noise policy documents produced in the U.S., including both emission regulations and immission guidelines. The successes and failures of the historical U.S. noise policy provide guidance in developing concepts for a new national unified noise policy.