Editorial: Keep a unified message on O'Hare noise

Elk Grove Village Village President Craig Johnson had it right this week when he acknowledged that the fight over O'Hare Airport expansion has moved from whether it will happen to how it will happen. "We're not here to stop expansion," said Johnson, who chairs the Suburban O'Hare Commission. "We're here to make the expanded airport into a better neighbor."

His words are distinctly similar to those of DuPage County Board member Paul Fichtner last November when he was named chairman of an ad hoc committee on airport noise for the county, which is an SOC member. "We're not here to stop airport expansion," Fichtner said, "We're not here to close runways. We're not here to stop the noise. We're here to minimize the noise."

And then we have newly re-elected state Rep. Marty Moylan, who said in a December news release announcing a panel he formed to study airport noise, ""My goal is to bring as many people and groups together as possible to try and reach a comprehensive solution."

All well and good. Clearly, the various players have similar goals. But some perhaps foreseeable seams began to show this week when Johnson, who heads the 11-member Suburban O'Hare Commission of which DuPage County is a member, issued a memo on village letterhead suggesting Moylan's group was "premature" in scheduling a February organizational meeting. Johnson said the SOC is still collecting data on which to build its case for changes with the Federal Aviation Administration, the airport and the city of Chicago, which owns and operates O'Hare.

Perhaps the most important message to read from all this activity regarding airport noise - and keep in mind there's also an O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission, a Fair Allocation in Runways Coalition and various other neighborhood and grass roots organizations devoted to this issue - is that unless O'Hare does something meaningful to mitigate the noise problem resulting from its reconfigured runways, the clamor for action is only going to become louder and more diffuse. Hopefully, the city, the airport and the FAA are paying attention. Heaven knows and two decades of history prove that their lack of attention can translate into impediments, delays and millions of dollars that do more for the sustenance of the legal profession than the cultivation of neighborliness.

But Moylan's "comprehensive solution" doesn't hinge merely on the airport side's willingness to listen. An ultimate solution may well require a legislative component. It may require involvement at the county level. It may require localized activities as well as regionwide influences. It will certainly demand a unified coordination of efforts, recognizing the value of the airport and the certainty of expansion, from all the towns and agencies legitimately crying for relief.