Demands For FAA To Require 'Robust' Tweed Environmental Study Mount

EAST HAVEN, CT — The Federal Aviation Administration said it’s waiting on an Environmental Assessment from the Tweed New Haven Airport Authority before deciding if a more extensive study, called an Environmental Impact Statement, is needed.

As reported by Patch beginning in May 2021, the airport's expansion calls for moving its terminal to the East Haven side of its property while extending its runway by more than 1,000 feet. The Airport Authority and the city of New Haven inked a 43-year lease in 2021, and in August, the deal was sealed between Goldman Sachs-owned Avports and the Authority, over East Haven's strong objections. Read that story here.

According to reporting by the New Haven Independent this week, airport authority director Sean Scanlon said it was “probably a week away” from delivering a draft EA to the FAA.

Now, years after the evolution of the Master Plan, when the airport said it would prepare an Environmental Assessment, as of Friday, Tweed has yet to provide the cursory evaluation to the FAA.

Patch reached out to Scanlon for comment. This post will be updated if a response is received.

Demands for a "robust, detailed" EIS mount

East Haven Mayor Joseph A. Carfora is among the chorus, including Save Our Sound, Friends of the Farm River Estuary, and this week, District 12 state Sen. Christine Cohen, that's urging the federal agency to require the more comprehensive Environmental Impact Statement be completed.

District 12 includes areas of East Haven that are home to tidal wetlands, marshes, and the shoreline.

An EIS, they all note, is required by the National Environmental Policy Act.

After reaching out to Colleen D’Alessandro, the FAA New England Region administrator, an FAA spokesperson forwarded the following statement:

"Tweed New Haven Airport Authority has contracted consultants to prepare the environmental review and the FAA will independently evaluate the data to ensure it is consistent with NEPA regulations and FAA Order 1050.1F. Environmental impact determines whether a more extensive Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is required. The FAA provides oversight of the environmental review of the proposed project consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and other special purpose laws."

The FAA does not refer to it as an Environmental Assessment (EA) nor an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), rather an "environmental review."

Back in 2008, the FAA required an EIS for what town officials told Patch was a "much smaller, and a significantly less environmentally impactful airport project" for construction of runway safety areas and reconstruction, realignment and southerly extension of a taxiway on site, according to records and East Haven officials.

According to court documents obtained by Patch, the FAA published a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in October 1999 and a final version in 2000.

"And, it has required the preparation of an EIS for similar activities proposed at Igor I. Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford," Carfora wrote in a letter to the FAA.

"Given that the (expansion) project includes a runway extension, as well as construction in sensitive coastal areas and wetlands, and significant vehicular traffic impacts, including the constructive use of an important Town park, in a distressed municipality, we urge the FAA to be consistent and require the same for this project."

On its website, the FAA said it's "aware of the past and present controversy of proposed improvements at this airport."

"Once the appropriate level of NEPA documentation has been determined, the Airport, supported by the FAA, will conduct opportunities for community engagement where there will be appropriate channels of communication with the community. The timeline for the FAA’s review of the proposed project is contingent on receiving the initial EA from the airport authority."

The ecosystem surrounding Tweed

Patch took a tour of the area surrounding Tweed on both the East Haven and New Haven sides to include a look at the wetlands, tidal marshes, creeks, brooks, and shoreline evacuation areas last week.

Cohen, state Senate chair of the Environment Committee, was named the 2021 Legislative Champion by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities for her work and leadership on environmental policy. She wrote that the area in and around the airport is “comprised of inland and tidal wetlands, preserves, beaches and parks, is part of a critical ecosystem that without protection, could jeopardize the unique fauna and flora of the locale.”

While saying she applauds “economic development and enhanced connectivity through modernized transportation options,” she is pressing the federal agency to delve deeper: “I urge you to prepare an EIS as required by the National Environmental Policy Act,” she wrote.

“I fear that an Environmental Assessment for Tweed Airport does not go far enough to study the full extent of the impact on our communities. An Environmental Impact Statement is a more detailed and rigorous examination compared to that of an EA and, given the scope and impression of this project, is the only way to proceed. We must delve deeper and perform due diligence to truly understand both the short- and long-term implications of this planned expansion …”

Read that letter here:

Sen. Cohen Tweed Airport EI... by Ellyn Santiago

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Save The Sound, Farm River Estuary group demands EIS

In April 2022, Save The Sound was the first to call for the FAA to require a more “robust” environmental study, saying there are “serious environmental concerns raised by the planned expansion…”

Read that letter here:

Save The Sound Tweed Letter... by Ellyn Santiago

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And also this past week, the Friends of the Farm River Estuary also wrote to the FAA’s New England Region director, sharing its “concerns with the proposed Tweed expansion and need for an EIS."

It maintains that given the Farm River Estuary is only mentioned once in the Tweed expansion Master Plan, it does not “show or describe the Estuary and its unique characteristics.”

“Nothing in the Master Plan suggests the Authority has considered the proposed expansion’s potential impacts to the Estuary,” the letter reads, adding it “strongly urges the FAA to require a robust and thorough EIS for the proposed Tweed expansion, including careful analysis of foreseeable environmental and public health impacts to the Estuary and surrounding communities.”

Read that letter here:

FFRE Tweed Expansion Letter... by Ellyn Santiago

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Town of East Haven position

In a letter to Tweed director Scanlon dated Oct. 18, East Haven Mayor Carfora said the Authority is ignoring the environmental impact of the expansion on wetlands outside the fences of the airport property, and not just those in East Haven, but New Haven as well.

"We are now in possession of information, both from public sources and private confidential discussion that the Authority and/or its agents directed that mapping of impacted wetlands only evaluate the impact that this project will have on wetlands with n the Airport property, not those that are outside of it—both in New Haven and East Haven – areas outside the airport that impact densely populated residential areas which include potential lifesaving evacuation routes," he wrote.

"You should be more concerned that an accurate and truthful depiction of what is occurring around this expansion has not been provided to the FAA, the State of Connecticut, and we now also have concerns that the Authority that you lead also might not have been provided accurate information," Carfora wrote.

This story is part of a series on the Tweed New Haven Airport expansion.

Read more here>>

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