2020-10-12 GC Agenda - Item 9 - Attachment 1 - Aircraft Noise Ombudsman Report - Investigation

4.7       On the basis of the EIS and additional information provided by the Sunshine
          Coast Council, the Minister for Environment approved the project on 18 July
          2016. A delegate for the Minister for Environment advised Airservices in a
          letter dated 28 June 2016 that:

                  The EIS indicates that whilst some dwellings may be newly exposed or experience an
                  increase of aircraft noise, on balance there will be an overall reduction of dwellings
                  experiencing varying degrees of aircraft noise. On this basis, the Civil Aviation Safety
                  Authority and or Airservices Australia should give the relevant authorisation(s) should
                  they be engaged to do so or as they are required to do so.

                  In giving any authorisation, consideration should be given as to whether the
                  authorisation would result in changes to the Australian Noise Exposure Concept
                  (ANEC) or the Australian Noise Exposure Forecast (ANEF) contours (as applicable),
                  and or to the N70 contours compared to those presented in the EIS.

                  In particular, there should not be a significant increase in the extent and distribution of
                  the ANEC / ANEF contours in so much as it would potentially impact the health, safety,
                  welfare or quality of life of people and communities. There should also not be a
                  significant increase in the extent and distribution of N70 contours in so much as it would
                  potentially impact the health, safety, welfare or quality of life of people and communities.
                  This is to ensure that people and communities in the vicinity of the airport are not
                  exposed to aircraft noise patterns that are significantly different to those presented and
                  consulted on during the assessment process.

Airservices’ flight path design work

4.8       Airservices proposed to introduce flight paths for the new runway at Sunshine
          Coast Airport, known as Runway 13/31, planned to be operational in 2020.
          Airservices began its flight path design work in late 2017 when approached by
          the Sunshine Coast Council. Detailed design work commenced in April 2018.

4.9       In determining the flight paths, Airservices set out to align its designs as
          closely as possible to the concept flight paths defined in the EIS. While
          seeking to align with the concept flight paths, Airservices did identify some
          variations that it considered would deliver environmental benefits.

Targeted Environment Impact Assessment (TEIA)

4.10 Airservices engaged GHD, a professional services firm, to undertake a
     Targeted Environmental Impact Assessment (TEIA V1)8, in accordance with
     Airservices’ own methodology as described in its NOS9. This assessed
     Airservices’ proposed flight path design, which it would take to the community
     and other stakeholders for consultation and which would inform Airservices’
     Stakeholder Engagement Plan (SEP).

4.11 The Executive Summary in GHD’s TEIA concluded that:
                  The findings of this targeted EIA are considered generally consistent with the findings of
                  the EIS as would be expected given the similarity of the proposed flight paths. Minor
                  discrepancies between the results documented in the targeted EIA and the EIS were


8 GHD, Airservices Australia Proposed change to flight paths at Sunshine Coast Airport Targeted environmental

impact assessment March 2019, Version 1: Effective 25 February 2019 (TEIA V1)
9 Airservices Australia, NOS, op. cit



Aircraft Noise Ombudsman
Investigation into complaints about the introduction of new flight paths in the Sunshine Coast (April 2020)   Page 10