Bucks County, Pennsylvania, residents look to take legal action against Trenton-Mercer Airport (KTTN), New Jersey

A group of citizens from Bucks County, Pa., is on the verge of taking legal action against Mercer County and a federal agency over what it claims is an illegal use of the Trenton-Mercer Airport over the past year.

Bucks Residents for Responsible Airport Management, or BRRAM, a group that has protested the airport’s actions a number of times since its inception in 1999, is planning to use the federal court system to try to compel the county to study the environmental impact of having Frontier Airlines, a commercial carrier, flying out of Ewing, said Holly Bussey, a spokeswoman for the group.

This study would produce an environmental impact statement, which would explain the effect that the airport has on the surrounding area. These statements generally look at the impact of the airport on noise levels, air and water quality, land use, wildlife and more.

“We want the airport to do an environmental impact study and determine if what they’re trying to do is legal,” said Bussey, a Lower Makefield, Pa., resident.

Bussey said the group believes that a 2006 decision from the Federal Aviation Administration required Mercer County to perform one of these studies before bringing another commercial carrier to the airport. Frontier Airlines began operating out of the airport last year and environmental impact statement has still not been produced, she said.

The group does not know what the study would find, or what effect it would have on the airport’s operations, Bussey said, but it is legally required.

“We’re not here to judge that,” Bussey said. “We’re trying to have them follow the law and be good neighbors.”

Mercer County did not perform this study in response to Frontier’s arrival at the airport because the FAA did not require the county to do so, county spokeswoman Julie Willmot said. If the agency does require an environmental impact study, the county will perform one and will be required to pay for it, Willmot said.

BRRAM will name the FAA in addition to Mercer County in the likely event that it takes legal action, Bussey said, because the agency has not forced the county to perform this study.

After a few years of lessened activity, BRRAM has become re-energized with the arrival of Frontier, Bussey said. In recent months they have begun to build a presence on social media, visit local municipal councils, and attempt to spread awareness of their cause through a door-to-door information campaign, she said.

The group is open to Mercer County residents as well and it welcomes anyone who is affected by the airport, Bussey added.

Aside from the fact that the group believes the county is violating federal regulations, it believes many residents of Bucks and Mercer counties suffer quality of life issues because of the new commercial traffic at the airport, said Bussey.

As the airplanes approach the airport, they pass over eastern Bucks County at such a low altitude that people can read the numbers on the side of the plane, Bussey said, and all conversations come to a halt.

“You’re in your house and have to stop conversation if your windows are open,” she said.

The noise from the planes is loud enough that Bussey does not need to set an alarm in the morning; she wakes up to the roar of the first plane to fly over her neighborhood each day.

She said she understands the planes must reach this low altitude as they approach or leave the airport, but she said the airplanes need to share the pain by spreading their flight patterns so that it is not always the same clusters of residents that suffer from the deafening sound of the commercial flights.

Whether the group is successful or not in litigation, Bussey said she wants the airport to act as a good neighbor if it expands in the future.

BRRAM would like to see better communication from the airport and Mercer County if it changes course and the group would like to see the airport spread the flight patterns more to reduce the negative impact on the residents who currently suffer the most, she said.

“We’re not trying to close the airport,” Bussey said. “We’re asking for the airport to be responsible.”

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