A total of 2,640 dwelling units will be affected by noise at or above 65 decibels in 2023, compared to 976 on sound maps for 2015.
The new projections, based on computer modeling, suggest high-decibel noise will affect larger portions of Winooski and Williston, and slightly less of certain parts of South Burlington.
It will also affect small parts of Burlington and Colchester, and a corner of Essex with no homes. A total of 2,655 acres will be within the 65 decibel zone in 2023, according to the projections.
That’s according to a 164-page noise exposure study that has been eagerly awaited by residents in the flight path, including some who oppose having the F-35s at the airport.
Officials from BTV, as the airport is known, commissioned the study and posted it online Tuesday. They will hold a press conference at 10 a.m. Wednesday to discuss it.
The F-35 fighter planes will arrive in September at the Vermont Air National Guard hangers at BTV. The guard’s F-16 fighter jets were phased out earlier this year.
Properties in high noise zones could be eligible for soundproofing grants and two other programs designed to protect home values. The Federal Aviation Administration grants could funnel close to $100 million to Chittenden County over the next 20 years.
Municipalities will have to pay a 10 percent match for grants to home owners. Individual property owners could qualify for $40,000 to $50,000 in grants for soundproofing with new windows and doors.
Gene Richards, aviation director at the airport, said BTV will apply for the grants after public input. It would be at least a year before any money flows, he said.
The findings aren’t a surprise, he suggested. They are similar to a 2013 study about the possible impact of the F-35s at the airport. He reiterated that the city would not seek federal money to demolish more homes, which has been a controversial mitigation strategy.
Since 1989, the airport has razed 200 homes in South Burlington with FAA grants. Between 2007 and 2019, those grants totaled $32 million.
Critics of the demolitions lamented the loss of affordable housing stock. In response, Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger and other city officials switched direction.
Airport officials will pursue three types of grants based on the new noise projections, according to Richards. In addition to sound insulation, they will pursue an FAA grant designed to compensate home owners for decline in property values due to noise. Eligible property owners could receive grants equal to the difference when a sale price is below the appraised value of their home.
A third grant program would allow the airport to buy eligible homes, noise-proof them, and resell them on the open market.
All three programs are designed to improve housing stock, said Richards.
He acknowledged that community leaders have expressed worry about noise from F-35s at the airport, which is located just three miles from downtown Burlington in a heavily populated area.
“They have concerns, obviously, about the potential for louder noise and affordable housing and preserving it in their community and making sure that it’s viable and livable,” Richards said. “And you know, that’s been a constant concern for everybody in our community.”
Grants would be allocated first to the most noise-affected properties and flow from there, added Nicholas Longo, BTV’s deputy director of aviation. Some would have to wait.
“The property owners need to understand that we are moving forward very quickly in this process, but depending on your geographic location within the contour lines, it may be many years before you receive federal funding to mitigate,” Longo said.
Commercial properties would not generally be eligible for the grants. Schools and other public use buildings would be — but with a 10 percent match.
Chamberlin Elementary School, near the airport, sits in the 65 decibel zone, according to the new map. School and airport officials are discussing soundproofing grants.
The new report also includes data for 2018, but noted that it was an atypical year for several reasons. Runway construction and phase-out of the F-16s led to less noise than is typical, according to the report. The 2015 data presents a better baseline to compare sound levels from F-16s versus F-35s, airport officials said.
In addition to the press conference, the airport will host an open house about the noise exposure maps, also on Wednesday, from 5 to 7 p.m. on the mezzanine level. Another open house will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday at the O’Brien Community Center in Winooski.
For more information and a link the new map, go to the airport website.
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America, land of huge multinational military contractor welfare. Trillions of dollars of unnecessary and unwanted military equipment slowly aging into obsolescence, sitting silently on huge swaths of concrete across western states.
While America’s roads and bridges crumble, and students are crushed by student loans, and elementary schools go unheated. But military contractors and Pentagon lobbyists pay a lot of money to our representatives so we must keep building more planes and more tanks and more equipment the military doesn’t want or need.
This is an empirical example of the word “inhumane.” With the Catch 22 remake now playing on Hulu, here in Chittenden County we are inserting a screaming war machine into the lives of human beings and trying to make those lives somehow better. In this case though, the machines trump the people: Sacrifices have to be made, and it is the people who sacrifice — so say they. Catch 22!
Imagine. We are attempting to “insulate” people against demonstrable harm, not simply to their health but to their community. It exemplifies what we do to ecosystems: Namely, we first destroy and then apply illusory bandaids to pretend that our destructive actions can be magically “mitigated.” Pure delusion, pure poppycock!
In July, 2012, when NBC5’s Stewart Ledbetter asked VTANG General Steven Cray about US Air Force Environmental Impact Statement and its report that F35 is much louder than F16 & would negatively impact 1,000’s more people, Cray’s answer, on TV: “Well, noise is a very difficult subject, I think, for anybody to really understand, unless you live and you experience it yourself.”
In December, 2012, Democratic Party Senator Patrick Leahy’s cousin-in-law, real estate developer Ernie Pomerleau, paid for an all-expenses paid trip to Florida via private jet so that Democratic Party Mayor Miro Weinberger and Democratic Party Governor Peter Shumlin could listen to an early variant F35 take off. While wearing enormous noise-muffling earphones, Governor Shumlin then remarked: “Volume, seems to me, is about the same,” Shumlin observed [in comparison to F16]. “Listening to this has been a real eye opener,” he said. “Its a different sound, but its surprising how quiet the F-35 is.”
So quiet that now, here it is, about 4 months before first F35’s arrive, & new map almost exactly mirrors original US Air Force Environmental Impact Statement in 2012 that was repeatedly poo-poohed and minimized by nearly every member of VT Democratic Party, including entire Congressional delegation. At least 6,000 people estimated directly in the new “not suitable for residential use” zone, just as was estimated back in 2012. Not to mention 1,000’s more just outside the new boundaries.
Conveniently released just after the state legislative session has ended, helping many complicit members of Vermont’s Democratic Party avoid awkward questions they would rather not answer.
The airport was in its current location prior to all the SoBu houses being built near it.
The Vt Air Guard has been active since just after WWII.
Perhaps the developers who built the houses near the airport should have been less greedy and thought about the long term consequences. I view it like the people who buy houses next to gun ranges or farms and then get all upset at the noise or smells. Some common sense before buying might have been a good thing.
This morning we heard three deafening fighter jets scream over my house…the day after airport relases noise maps. Aside from the lack of communication from VTANG about any training flights it was a sobering reminder of what is to come. We are selling our house in Winooski which is inside the 65 dbl contour and moving accross town to a home just outside the contour of noise. I’m not sure which scenario is more risky for us, but we live this town and community too much to leave and it’s one of the few somewhat affordable communities left in Chittenden county. We can only hope it will be liveable, that we’re not throwing our little nest egg into the trash by investing in our beloved community, and that our children won’t experience long-term health effects. And for what “modernizing” our military? Making sure we can kill more foreigners with brown skin and different beliefs than those of us here in the US? What would be saying if this story was unfolding in China, Russia, or North Korea… the narrative would not be about patriotism and safety, but about dictators and military armament. Yet here we are the citizens of a democracy where our voice is not being heard and our best interests are being aggregiously overlooked. How can Bernie travel around on a platform against military spending and nuclear weapons and yet bring such a destructive force to the communities he is supposed to serve. One only need to look back to 2013 to see that beautiful contour line snuggled in close to the airport to see how quickly things can change. It is a clear reminder that the military will do what they want with little regard for the impact on its neighbors.
At least a year before any money flows…20 year roll out…10% match: This is a rip off! The noise begins in a few months, and people in the zone have to wait up to 20 years for relief. They have to pay 10% to access the funding. And the insulation only mitigates the noise in their home. Yard, streets, neighborhood park, deafening noise! Sen. Leahy, Sen. Sanders and Congressman Welch, Mayor Weinberger, how could you do this to people in these communities? To the military, these people are collateral sacrifice, and our elected representatives sold us out.
Jobs. That is such bs. The same amount of money invested in a cyber mission would boost economic development in a clean technology, attract and train the kind of labor force we need. A med-evac disaster relief mission would benefit our healthcare network giving young people an opportunity to train for life-affirming career.s. Sen. Leahy brought this nuclear bomber, first strike mission to Vermont and about the F-35the people must call him to account.
Has Sen. Leahy attended any of the community meetings about the F-35 to answer to the people? Has Sanders or Welch? “The people have a right to assemble together to consult for their common good – to instruct their Representatives.” [VT Constitution] It’s time to call Sen. Leahy to a community meeting, to hear our objections to the basing of the F-35 in Vermont. Deafening noise, nuclear mission, fiery crash, environmental risks, — we know so much more today than we knew when the decision to base the F-35 here was announced. June 6 is D-Day! The people have to act.
The noise report seems to say that computer modeling and not actual noise monitoring in neighborhoods was used. I don’t think that’s giving an accurate picture. In my neighborhood there are times we have to stop talking and pause television while takeoffs happen.
I just want to point out that the “65 db zone” means the average noise level in a 24-hour timespan. I find that ridiculous, and useless, as a measure of noise or livability. What they mean is that most of the day and night it is about 50 db (quiet) and for minutes at a time it’s 120 or 140 db – which is deafening.
Remember how the average American family has 2.2 children? But in reality No One has 2.2 children, and no jet-flight-path is 65 db.
Seven Days website was down but F35s just took off. About 8:12 AM. Our windows were open (it being late May and all). Insane. And people thought the F16s were loud. We are probably a half mile or more outside of the new “not suitable for residential use” zone. Hopefully no one in Winooski or large parts of Burlington and South Burlington have pets at home this AM or there are going to be a lot of unexpected “accidents” on the floor when you get home. . .
The noise maps bury the impact of F35 noise by averaging it combined with all other airport noise in a 24hr, 365 day period.
The F-35 noise input data was merged with all other airport noise, and the 228 days of F-35 activity was spread over 365 days. This statistical method significantly diminished the F-35 noise impact, deceptively making the F-35 noise impact appear to be less (and the greater than 65dB noise zone area on the map smaller) than where people are actually experiencing the singular events, 228 days of the year, at decibel levels much greater than the average airport noise.
The FAA noise maps that are on display for the public are just one more dishonest maneuver in the scandal-ridden history of the F-35. Sen. Leahy’s role in forcing it on people in Vermont — all cities and towns directly impacted voted against it — will be Leahy’s lousy legacy.
Australia is purchasing F35 fighter jets. ABC News there did investigation into fighter jet hearing damage.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-11-26/stu…
“A jet aircraft can create noise of about 140 decibels for those nearby, and a plane flying 160 metres overhead would still generate a noise of about 116 decibels, Professor {of Audiology} Dowell said.
Runway at the Darwin RAAF base is about one kilometre away from the childcare centre.
Professor Dowell said at that distance noise levels from jet aircraft could still be around 100 decibels.
But without knowing exactly how much noise children at the childcare centres were exposed to, it was difficult to know whether they would be harmed by the noise levels, he said.
He said he had only experienced military jets flying overhead during a flyover at the AFL grand final in Melbourne when they were at least 100m above his head.
“It was unbelievably loud. If we had a sound level meter there I am absolutely sure it went above 100 (decibels),” he said.”
Never thought I’d say this but as bad as they were, bring back the F16’s. Tragedy of Leahy is he was elected in 1974 running against military-industrial excesses & abuse of Vietnam era. Now he has become what he ran against.
There coming get over it I know more people in favor of the f35s then not your just beating a die horse. I think we should give the tools that our fighting men woman and trans solders need to sever and protect us. If you don’t like it then leave.
Hi there NorthernFishing,
There are two schools of thought on this F-35 thing. I’m sure you know that differences of opinion are allowed in this free country.
Many objections are not to the planes, but to how close the deafening volume will be to thousands of homes. It’ll be as loud as the 4th of July everyday. We shall see.
If there is a nuclear war, we’ll all be going. Until then, my hope is that we can stay, and that being prepared will suffice. Over and out.