Point Loma residents are worried that proposed changes to San Diego International Airport flight routes will increase noise and cover their properties with soot from aviation fuel.

As the Federal Aviation Administration works to develop flight routes that are more fuel-efficient and use less airspace, residents near the airport say they’re not sold on an FAA study that concludes there will be no ill effects from the route changes.

“It’s really an insignificantly sized document. They have their data and it is very difficult to glean, and we don’t know how valid it is,” said Point Loma resident Casey Schnoor. He created a

Change.org petition that criticizes the FAA’s plan, and said more than 1,500 signatures were gathered in five days.

Schnoor and others are particularly concerned about a proposed route for eastbound departures.

Planes currently fly west from the airport past the mouth of the San Diego River, then head south until a waypoint approximately a mile southwest of the southern tip of Point Loma. From there, they turn eastward over the Silver Strand.

Under the new route, the planes would turn south sooner and in a tighter arc and head to the Silver Strand, skipping the waypoint and shaving time and distance. It also would position them closer, and possibly over, Point Loma.

Proposed new flight path

“It’s obvious that the planes that fly over land will be noisier,” said Neal Esterly, another critic.

There’s also a strong likelihood that soot from aircraft fuel will dust the neighborhood, said Russ Valone of Point Loma. Currently, a lot of aircraft pollution goes into the ocean and gradually dissipates. It’s worse, however, if the soot ends up on land because it will accumulate until it rains and is washed to discharge points, creating a heavy spike in pollution levels, Valone said.

“When you actually get a storm, that’s when the surf gets best.… We’ve got our kids out there surfing,” Valone said.

The FAA is creating new flight routes near airports in major cities and regions across the country, including Southern California. The decadeslong project is part of an ongoing effort to implement a navigation system that helps planes take more direct routes in and out of airports, shaving time and fuel expenses.

As a part of this process, the FAA, as required by law, studied noise and environmental impacts. Across Southern California, it found that there were no significant impacts.

One noise model showed that among thousands of “historic and cultural resources” across Southern California, there will be a 5-or-more-decibel noise increase at 20 such areas on any given day. None of these venues are in San Diego County. Generally, people are able to perceive differences in volume of at least 5 decibels.

The amount of noise from a flying airplane depends on several factors including the type of aircraft, the type of engine, weather conditions, ground terrain, nearby buildings and vegetation, the use of noise reduction technology, distance from the aircraft and how the aircraft is being flown.

FAA spokesman Ian Gregor said there were 11 public workshops on the project in Southern California, including one in San Diego.

“The noise analysis that the FAA conducted for the draft (environmental assessment) indicated the proposed procedures would not result in any significant or reportable noise increases anywhere in the study area under the National Environmental Policy Act,” Gregor said in a statement.

The FAA is accepting critiques of its plan until Oct. 8. After that it will analyze and respond to comments, Gregor said.