O'HARE — Complaints about jet noise soared more than 7.5 percent from August to September, as Northwest Side residents continued to voice their anger about the racket made by planes using a new runway at O'Hare Airport.
In September, 32,532 complaints were made to the city-run toll-free hotline and website, more complaints than were filed in all of 2013, according to the most recent data released Friday by the O'Hare Noise Compatibility Commission.
However, 10 percent of the complaints filed in September were filed from 10 addresses, according to the commission.
The increase comes despite the near-total stop of airline traffic on Sept. 26, when authorites said an employee set fire to the aircraft control tower in Aurora, forcing federal aviation officials to cancel thousands of flights and reroute airplanes away from O'Hare. Normal operations did not resume until Oct. 13.
Since September of 2013 — before a new east-west runway opened last fall as part of the $10 billion O'Hare Modernization Program — the number of complaints have skyrocketed more than 1,400 percent, according to data from the noise commission.
Colleen Cichon-Mulcrone told the commission she spent $15,000 to soundproof her children's rooms in her Jefferson Park home to lessen the near-constant roar of jets.
"How can anyone fall asleep with a plane overhead every 10 minutes?" Mulcrone said. "You cannot tell us what we must endure."
Residents of Ald. Mary O'Connor's 41st Ward, which includes Norwood Park and Edison Park, filed the highest number of complaints of any Chicago ward, logging 4,708 objections to the sound of planes taking off and landing at O'Hare, an increase of 8 percent. Nearly 20 percent more 41st Ward residents filed complaints in September than in August, according to the data.
Residents of Ald. John Arena's 45th Ward, like Mulcrone, filed 1,895 complaints in September — more than 30 percent more complaints than were filed in August.
Complaints stayed about the same in September as they were in August in Ald. Margaret Laurino's 39th Ward, which includes Sauganash and Edgebrook.
The noise commission's meeting came days after voters in Chicago and more than a half-dozen suburbs overwhelmingly passed advisory referendums calling on local and federal aviation officials to do more to reduce the racket of planes using the airport's newest east-west runway.
Nearly 88 percent of voters in the 41st Ward urged Congress to allow more homes to qualify for subsidized soundproofing, such as new attic insulation, air conditioning, exterior doors, storm doors and windows that block all noise, according to unofficial results.
Barry Cooper, the regional administrator of the FAA's Great Lakes Region, told the commission that residents' best hope for noise relief will come from the agency's efforts to accelerate its $18 billion "NextGen" initiatives during the next three years.
Using satellite-based navigation, the technology will allow planes to choose the most efficient route to O'Hare and allow planes to descend more smoothly, perhaps allowing planes' engines to be near idle as they make their final approach over the Far Northwest Side, Cooper said.
Flight patterns at O'Hare are designed to ensure the airport operated as efficiently and safely as possible, federal aviation officials said.
In addition, the commission unanimously approved its 2015 budget of about $250,000.
The next meeting of the noise commission is scheduled for Jan. 9 at Cafe La Cave, 2777 S. Mannheim Road, Des Plaines, where the meetings are scheduled to take place through next year.
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