County Commissioners Plan Data Quality Act Petition
Winston knows a federal statute is important when County Commissioners plan to use to stop annoying aircraft noise.

The Cincinnati Enquirer recently reported that the Hamilton County, Ohio, Commissioners intend to file a Data Quality Act Petition with the Federal Aviation Administration. Their DQA Petition will challenge and request correction of the FAA's estimates of noise and annoyance levels from planes using Kentucky International Airport. The Commissioners have a study they claim shows far higher noise and annoyance levels than FAA's studies.

Winston does not have a dog in this fight, and he doesn't know whose study is right. Winston does know, however, that reports like this disprove the environmental groups's claim that the DQA is merely an industry tool to stop necessary federal government environmental regulation. The DQA is being used by an increasingly diverse population to challenge and correct an increasingly diverse universe of federal government information.

This was always the DQA's intended purpose. By its terms, and by the terms of the OMB and agency DQA Guidelines, the DQA provides a new means for "any affected person" to seek correction of any government-disseminated information that does not meet high quality standards.

How anyone can object to this is a question beyond Winston's ability to understand, but then he's only a dog.