When we had the severe storm come through Fayette County, I couldn’t tell between the sound of the violent thunder or the roaring jet noise above my house. Only when the airport momentarily quit departures did I catch a break.

That’s the way it’s been ever since they opened the fifth runway in May of 2006. I live 22 miles south of Hartsfield, yet I now have 30,000 flights a year (their data) fly directly over my once peaceful and secluded five-acre home.

That’s only one of several flight paths that the Department of Aviation and the FAA moved farther south and snuck deeper into Fayette County even though they are taking off west to go east or east to go west.

The reason: traffic congestion slows down flight schedules, so the FAA implemented a nationwide, highly contested plan to reduce flight delays. You can read about it in a number of newsletters and pending lawsuits at http://pages.prodigy.net/rockaway/newsletter458.htm

The primary carrier taking advantage of the virtual runways over Fayette County is Delta and Air Tran. Before the merger the Hartsfield website under the FAR Part 150 Study projected an increase of 150,000 flights over the next five years.

That was a year and a half ago and before one of the largest and fastest mergers in history, Delta and Northwest Airlines, slid through Congress without a hitch.

Now with making it the world’s largest airline at the world’s busiest airport with their agenda to increase international flights, you can expect jet noise expanded from the now 5 a.m. to midnight to become 24/7 over Fayette County.

Oh, but wait, that’s not big enough. Now they want to add a sixth runway!

According to the files I obtained through the Georgia Open Records Act with the help of a journalist and a related article in the Atlanta Business Chronicle Feb. 13, they have big plans for us. It’s called Vision 2030. A billion-dollar-plus international terminal and Delta is pushing for a sixth runway.

There’s much more, but that’s all I need to know that if they go through with this to either lawyer up with other concerned citizens or leave what was once a dream community I found a few years ago.

Meantime, while our civic leaders were squabbling over traffic lights and zoning permits, the FAA and the Atlanta Department of Aviation have built a freeway system over our rural population, dumping toxic pollution and jet noise that rolls me out of bed like a California earthquake.

I contacted county commissioners and got little response or, “there’s nothing we can do about it.” Funny, Fayette County has a strict noise ordinance but exempts jet noise.

There are hundreds of counties across the country that take a proactive stand against the invasion of the FAA. I came from Orange County, Calif., where they battled and negotiated quieter takeoffs and no flights before 8 a.m. and no later than 10 p.m.

Even so, I watched what was once a small airport grow and destroy nearby communities like Tustin and Newport Harbor.

But we’re not a nearby community next to the airport and creating noisy flight paths over us was not necessary. The city of Atlanta, the mayor and Benjamin De Costa are making a billion-plus revenue, so unless they pay us to keep quiet and buy out our space like College Park (who they promised would not acquire more land for future runway), then stay in your jet noise zones and keep your money.

Meanwhile, shame on our civic leaders for not protecting our peaceful quality of life. Shame on the Realtors, sellers and especially the developers for building under and not properly disclosing to the unsuspecting buyer that they’re living under a hazardous jet noise flight path and the future home of the Hartsfield/Delta Empire.

Michael Meyer

Fayetteville, Ga.