“In Seine-et-Marne we know what it’s like to live with planes!” Says Joël Marion, the mayor (PCF) of Compans, “rurban village” as he presents it. Through the window, he can see the cabins splitting the sky at regular intervals, every few minutes apart.
This town of some 800 souls drains 6,500 employees, more than 150 companies in an industrial zone with the neighboring town of Mitry-Mory and economic benefits linked to the immediate proximity to Paris-CDG.
The other side of the coin: its constituents are losing sleep, he says.
According to a study released in 2019 by Bruitparif, the noise observatory in Ile-de-France, a person loses up to three years of “healthy” life in the event of high exposure to airborne noise around the airport area. .
In Compans, a town wedged between the airport, a railway and a national, it’s more: 38.1 months lost due to these cumulative nuisances.
This is what the environmental noise prevention plan (PPBE), an obligation for busy airports, under European law, must partly correct.
After a consultation phase, the 2022-2026 version will have to be validated by an inter-prefectural decree.
The “renewal of fleets with more recent and above all less noisy aircraft”, the strengthening of aid for soundproofing housing or even “new air procedures or trajectories to reduce noise pollution” are among the measures envisaged in this plan piloted by the General Directorate of Civil Aviation (DGAC).
– Curfew ? –
Incentives or playing on technical characteristics, they do not live up to the expectations of many elected officials or associations, who criticize “terrible inertia” on a subject affecting both public health and the environment.
The project “does not present a noise reduction objective” and “justification of the measures presented”, pinned the Airport Nuisance Control Authority (Acnusa) in an advisory opinion issued in March.
“We are going back to the world before, which takes precedence above all, there is no reflection and the PPBE project is the concrete illustration of this”, deplores the socialist mayor of Gonesse Jean-Pierre Blazy, considering that this must take into account “territories that are suffering”.
In the eyes of opponents, a central measure is missing: the establishment of a curfew at night or at least a drastic reduction in night flights, like other airports such as Frankfurt or London Heathrow.
Freight, which fuels nighttime activity, is particularly targeted.
Capping air traffic at 500,000 annual flights is also part of their demands, as it has skyrocketed since the end of the health crisis, despite inflation.
In April 2022, Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle welcomed 4.6 million passengers, or 70.8% of traffic in April 2019 (before Covid), figures Groupe ADP, manager of the Parisian platforms.
– “Lucid” –
“The cap and the curfew requested by local residents are operating restrictions” and they must be “the last resort”, explains the DGAC to AFP.
Before considering them, “an impact study must be carried out” after the adoption of the plan, in order to demonstrate that they are “indispensable” and to study their “costs/benefits”, according to these state services.
Opponents believe, on the contrary, that the finding is known and that the previous PPBE was already “a failure”. “In the name of the market and business, the activities of Roissy CDG impact the quality of life, the living and the health of 1.4 million residents of the Ile-de-France region”, castigates the MNLE 93 (National movement for the fight for the environment).
The territories that benefit from the airport but also suffer from its negative effects are advancing on a ridge line. “You have to find the right balance”, recognizes Joël Marion, wanting to be “lucid”.
Especially since Roissy is in competition with other international airports, he recalls. “The commercial stakes are very high and, if we close Roissy airport at night, I think we will lose a lot.”
