Legislature(2023 - 2024)BARNES 124
04/25/2024 08:00 AM House COMMUNITY & REGIONAL AFFAIRS
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| Audio | Topic |
|---|---|
| Start | |
| SJR20 | |
| Adjourn |
* first hearing in first committee of referral
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
| + | TELECONFERENCED | ||
| + | SJR 20 | TELECONFERENCED | |
SJR 20-WEATHER OBSERVING SYSTEM STATION OUTAGES
9:01:23 AM
CHAIR MCCORMICK announced that the only order of business would
be CS FOR SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 20(CRA), Urging the United
States Congress to address outages of Automated Weather
Observing System stations and Automated Surface Observing System
stations occurring in the state.
9:01:56 AM
SENATOR FORREST DUNBAR, Alaska State Legislature, as prime
sponsor, introduced CSSJR 20(CRA) to the committee. He began by
explaining the Automated Weather Observation System (AWOS) and
how it is unique to Alaska. He said about 59 percent of AWOS
stations around Alaska have reported full outages and 77 percent
have reported partial outages yearly for the past several years.
He said that CSSJR 20(CRA) would ask Alaska's federal delegation
and Congress more broadly to reauthorize certain federal
departments to fix the AWOS systems for the long term.
9:04:01 AM
SENATOR SHELLEY HUGHES, Alaska State Legislature, began her
remarks by confessing that she didn't know what AWOS was until
she was made aware of it while sitting on the food security task
force. She said that during her conferences with Alaska's
federal delegation, the issue of AWOS reliability was already
brought to the attention of the Federal Aviation Administration
(FAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) during the FAA
Reauthorization Act of 2018. She explained a few specific
recommendations outlined by CSSJR 20(CRA) and highlighted that
the resolution would be sent to the appropriate congressional
committees and the chairs of those committees to ensure that
they have it in their hands before the legislative session's
end. She thanked Representative Mears for her work on the
aforementioned task force and highlighted her role in bringing
the failures of AWOS to light.
9:09:54 AM
MIKE JONES, Economics Professor, University of Alaska (UA), gave
invited testimony during the hearing on CSSJR 20(CRA). He
shared his experience in listening to various air carriers from
around Alaska, all of which shared that AWOS outages are a
consistent point of failure that impacts their operations daily.
He said AWOS enables pilots to fly in conditions that they
wouldn't be able to otherwise and emphasized how failures in
AWOS stations around Alaska impact every sector of rural life
including food, medicine, health care, and business.
9:12:40 AM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE related that he has used AWOS many times
and said he hasn't used the system as much since the FAA has
been developing its weather camera system. He asked if the
reason the AWOS systems around the state are out of repair is
due to the new weather camera system or if it is caused by a
lack of parts and funding.
MR. JONES replied that Representative McCabe's question might be
too specific to the FAA to answer and directed the question to
Will Day.
9:14:37 AM
WILL DAY, Executive Director, Alaska Air Carriers Association
(AACA), gave invited testimony during the hearing on CSSJR
20(CRA). He explained how safer air transportation in Alaska
functions by describing the difference between instrument flight
rules (IFR) and visual flight rules (VFR). He said aircraft
safety has greatly improved as technology has improved, allowing
safe flight through inclement weather and explained the role
that AWOS plays in a pilot's weather briefing before flying on a
given day. He emphasized that a commercial flight may not
legally take place if a pilot is not able to obtain AWOS weather
data and highlighted that this caused 44 communities in Alaska
over the past year to be inaccessible due to their AWOS outages.
9:16:53 AM
SENATOR HUGHES pointed out that Alaskans who work for FAA are
appreciated, aware of the problems with AWOS, and need the
legislature's support.
9:18:13 AM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE asked how many communities in Alaska have
instrument approaches.
MR. DAY said that he did not have an answer and directed the
question to Don Owen.
9:20:08 AM
DON OWEN, Alaska Air Pilots, answered questions during the
hearing on CSSJR 20(CRA). He explained that when an airport has
no instrument approach, a method of flying known as "scud
running" is utilized. He explained that scud running is an
extremely dangerous way to operate and emphasized that IFR is
safer. He said currently, AWOS weather data is only available
by phone in many locations and the problem goes far beyond a
basic system failure.
9:23:13 AM
MR. JONES, in response to Representative McCabe's question said
he doesn't have an exact number of communities with IFR
approaches but found records of each runway and approach in a
spreadsheet.
9:24:38 AM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE asked if flights could be made based on
weather camera data only or if AWOS data is also required before
a flight may be dispatched.
MR. OWEN replied that small air carrier operations are required
to have destination weather at the estimated time of arrival and
the weather must be above specified minimums in order to
dispatch a flight.
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE asked whether the destination weather must
come from an FAA weather camera or an AWOS system.
MR. OWEN said that weather camera data is not acceptable to
dispatch a flight and said that the data must come from an AWOS
system.
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE reiterated his point that it doesn't make
sense that IFR flights may only be dispatched if they have
current AWOS data when that system is far outdated by the newer
FAA weather camera system.
MR. OWEN added that visibility minimums must be in place at a
destination for a flight to even initiate an approach and
without an automated surface observation system (ASOS) air
carriers have no way to get information on surface visibility
minimums.
9:27:50 AM
REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT pointed out the irony of repairing the
broken weather stations if there is no way to get to them in the
first place and asked if the weather data is used in NWS climate
tracking databases.
MR. JONES responded that AWOS and ASOS data is used by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the
NWS to build forecasting and climate models.
MR. OWEN added that aviation forecasting models, on board in
flight weather observation systems, and national aviation
weather studies rely on AWOS data.
REPRESENTATIVE HIMSCHOOT shared her knowledge of Yakutat's
struggle with malfunctioning AWOS systems and said that she is
in strong support of CSSJR 20(CRA).
9:30:48 AM
REPRESENATIVE BAKER asked Mr. Jones whether there is consistency
in where AWOS/ASOS outages are occurring and whether there is a
timeline for their repair.
MR. JONES replied that the length of outages by any given
location is not consistent and gave examples of differing
AWOS/ASOS outages and their time not in service.
REPRESENATIVE BAKER requested further information for the
public.
9:33:39 AM
CHAIR MCCORMICK opened public testimony on SJR 20.
9:34:04 AM
REPRESENTATIVE ANDREW GRAY, Alaska State Legislature, testified
in support of CSSJR 20(CRA). He explained how the outages of
AWOS systems around Alaska cause flights to be delayed and
emphasized the consequences of them being cancelled and their
effects on communities off the road system in Alaska.
CHAIR MCCORMICK spoke on the spoilage problem in Bethel, Alaska
and thanked Representative Gray for his testimony.
CHAIR MCCORMICK, after ascertaining there was no one else who
wished to testify, closed public testimony on CSSJR 20(CRA).
9:35:54 AM
REPRESENTATIVE MCCABE moved to report CSSJR 20(CRA) out of
committee with individual recommendations and the accompanying
fiscal notes. There being no objection, CSSJR 20(CRA) was
reported from the House Community and Regional Affairs Standing
Committee.
9:36:16 AM
The committee took an at-ease from 9:36 to 9:39 a.m.
9:39:00 AM
CHAIR MCCORMICK thanked the bill sponsors and invited
testifiers.
| Document Name | Date/Time | Subjects |
|---|---|---|
| SJR020B.pdf |
HCRA 4/25/2024 8:00:00 AM |
SJR 20 |
| SJR 20 Summary of Changes Version B to Version S 4.16.24.pdf |
HCRA 4/25/2024 8:00:00 AM |
SJR 20 |
| SJR 20 Fiscal Note 4.23.24.pdf |
HCRA 4/25/2024 8:00:00 AM |
SJR 20 |
| SJR 20 AFN Resolution 3.26.24.pdf |
HCRA 4/25/2024 8:00:00 AM |
SJR 20 |
| SJR 20 Supporting Document #1 4.23.24.pdf |
HCRA 4/25/2024 8:00:00 AM |
SJR 20 |
| SJR 20 Supporting Document #2 4.24.24.pdf |
HCRA 4/25/2024 8:00:00 AM |
SJR 20 |
| SJR 20 Sponsor Statement 4.24.24.pdf |
HCRA 4/25/2024 8:00:00 AM |
SJR 20 |