Opposition to Tweed New Haven Airport and to its proposed expansion took shape on the front steps of Town Hall last week as dozens of protestors came out to object to the traffic, noise, and other adverse environmental impacts on April 22.

The protest came on the heels of a call from environmental advocacy group Save the Sound earlier last week to hold the expansion proposal to a higher level of environmental review. It also came after Mayor Joseph Carfora, Jr., reversed his May 2021 support for Tweed expansion, stating in his March 30 State of the Town address that “At this point I cannot support nor can I recommend to our Town Council that we accept and support the terminal expansion move to the East Haven side. The burdens are too great and the impact at this time on out community are simply too transformative.”

The current Tweed Master Plan calls for a 699-foot runway expansion as well as about 700 feet of extension for two engineered material arresting system (EMAS) areas, which use crushable material placed at the end of a runway to stop an aircraft that overruns the runway. While opponents are concerned that larger and louder planes will use the expanded airport, of equal concern to many is the proposed expansion of the airport’s terminal to the East Haven side.

The master plan shows a news airport terminal fed from East Haven’s Proto Drive area, with Hemingway and Coe avenues becoming the most likely feeder roads for passengers heading in from I-95.

“[M]y concern is that the burden to East Haven that this terminal will bring with traffic, flooding, environmental, public safety operational costs, and capital necessities are monumental and they far outweigh any direct limited economic benefit” that East Haven will see, Carfora stated in his address.

Save the Sound sent a letter to the New England Region’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) office on April 18, warning of a flawed environmental review process and urging the FAA to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the proposed expansion of Tweed-New Haven Airport, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The airport authority is undertaking a less rigorous Environmental Assessment (EA).

Among the concerns Save the Sound raised are the failure to include taxiway impacts, as well as significant effects on inland and tidal wetlands; stormwater flooding, sea-level rise, and other floodplain and resilience issues; disruption of local and migratory wildlife habitat; compromised water quality due to increased traffic and discharges; increased greenhouse gas emissions; and the effects of emissions, traffic, and noise on nearby state-designated environmental justice communities in East Haven and New Haven.

“The FAA must undertake a thorough environmental review to assess these impacts on the natural and human environments at and around Tweed,” said Chris Kelly, Save the Sound’s Peter B. Cooper Legal Fellow, on a press release. “Residents deserve to understand the consequences of this long-term and highly controversial project. Under NEPA, projects with foreseeable, potentially severe impacts require a full EIS. In fact, an EIS was required for a smaller expansion of the airport in 2002. Not only is an EIS the right thing to do, it’s the law.”

Tweed New Haven Airport Executive Director Sean Scanlon said that the airport authority was following FAA guidance on the project.

“We are working hand-in-hand with the FAA and [Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection] on a weekly basis as part the NEPA process. The FAA determines whether a project should go through an EA or an EIS and, so far, they’ve found an EA to be sufficient,” Scanlon said. “We will continue working closely with them and following their lead when it comes to this process.”

In the meantime, local opponents continue to organize, often under the banner of the 10,000 Hawks group. Group member Lorena Venegas, who helped organize the April 22 protest, said in a press release that resident members have been active by taking pictures of “natural destruction on Thompson Avenue without warning or letter from politicians, recording high decibels of Avelo flights coming in 24/7 with readings up to 103 decibels, video recording the low flight paths over vulnerable residential areas, and [documenting] impacts on wildlife, wetlands, flooding, and bird life, not to mention local impacts on traffic and parking.”

For more information about the Tweed Master Plan, visit www.tweedmasterplan.com. For more information on the 10,000 Hawks group, visit www.facebook.com/groups/10000hawks.