In a joint letter last week, Maine’s two U.S. Senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, formally requested that Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley hold a public hearing in Maine on the Air Force’s plan to allow F-35 fighter jets to train over western Maine.
The senators also called for a more extensive analysis of the potential environmental impact of such a move.
Among their other committee assignments, Sen. Collins serves on the Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support, and on the Appropriation Committee’s Subcommittee on Defense. Sen. Snowe, who will be leaving the Senate in January, is a former member of the Armed Services Committee.
In making their case for a hearing here, the senators write that “despite the potential introduction of a much louder type of aircraft into the Condor MOA [Military Operating Area] compared to those aircraft which currently operate there, the closest public hearing to Maine is scheduled for Littleton, N.H., on May 15. The Condor MOA covers a significant portion of Maine, including four ski resorts, 47,700 acres of federally recognized Native American reservations, and 144 miles of the Appalachian Trail.”
They go on to argue that the Environmental Impact Statement submitted by the Air Force provides an inadequate analysis of that impact, thus fails to meet the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act.
“Because the current draft EIS for this proposal does not mention, consider, or sufficiently evaluate the impact on the environment or ambient noise level of the F-35, we believe that the existing draft EIS may not sufficiently examine the impacts of the proposed change to the airspace in a manner consistent with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act. Please describe what steps the Air Force will take to ensure potential F-35 operations are accounted for in the NEPA process for this proposed action.”
“I am fighter. Hear me roar.”
Tom Matzuka of Strong, a retired Air Force colonial, is spokesman for Western Maine Matters; a group formed by concerned citizens in 2007 in response to an EIS submitted to the FAA by the Massachusetts Air National Guard, which wanted to lower Condor’s training floor from 7,000 to 500 feet . MOA
Matzuka accused the Air Force of misleading the public about it’s intentions for Condor and the F-35.
He said that at public hearings on the Condor EIS, the Air Force, when asked about the F-35 flying here, repeatedly assured the public that it would not.
“Whenever we raised our concern we were told multiple times that this would not happen and specifically that the F-35’s would not fly into Maine,” he said. “It’s classic: ‘At this time we have no intention of doing that.’ And then they drop this bomb.”
Matzuka notes that western Maine is not the first place where residents have faced the prospect of the loud fighter flying low overhead.
He cited Valparaiso, Fl. (which is located close to the end of one of Elgin Air Force Base’s two major runways and faced far more overflights than the Air Force is publicly projecting for western Maine).
As is the case here, residents were of mixed opinions about F-35 noise.
“Valparaiso is a military town,” Marzuka said. “Has been for 50 years. But they took the Air Force to court because the Air Force was fudging their noise data.
The following excerpt is from a 2009 report by National Public Radio. (Note: A-10s are older ground-support fighters that fly at very low altitudes.)
"Air Force data suggest that, depending on altitude, the F-35 is three to 12 times louder than the A-10 attack aircraft. For some, it’s the sound of freedom.
“This is our nation’s defense,” says Bruce Dusenberry, a member of the DM-50, a civic group that promotes the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz.
“This is the security of our freedoms. So that’s equally important that we support our military for those reasons.”
The group says it supports any new mission the Air Force plans in Tucson because of the importance to the local economy.
"But some residents hear a different tune.
“If they love the sound of freedom so much, I’ll be happy to sell them my house,” says Gail Cordy, who sits on a community relations committee set up to work with the military over noise issues.
"Each day, dozens of A-10’s fly over Cordy’s home in midtown. She figures that about half her neighbors oppose louder flights, but are afraid to speak out.
“They don’t want to be seen as unpatriotic,” she says. “And that label has been leveled at us more than once.”
"It’s a sticky issue for any community leader.
“We’d be proud to be known as Fighter Town USA,” says John Arnold, mayor of Valparaiso, Fla. The city is next to Eglin Air Force Base, another candidate for the F-35s.
"Yet Valparaiso is suing the Air Force over noise from the aircraft. The lawsuit claims the Air Force didn’t adequately disclose its noise measurements in its environmental impact statement.
“We just take exception to the final [environmental impact statement], which put lots of noise over the city of Valparaiso,” he says. According to Air Force data, he continues, the noise would make the city almost uninhabitable. … The military could also soundproof homes under flight paths. But that won’t help if you’re in your backyard having a barbecue — which people in Arizona and Florida do a lot."
The lawsuit was eventually settled, with the Air Force agreeing to provide a thorough EIS and to schedule fewer take offs and landings from the runway near the city.
On the matter of F-35 noise levels, Matzuka said some of the comparisons that have appeared in print might serve to make residents under the proposed flights more comfortable, but in fact border on the absurd.
He cited one recent article in which the F-35’s noise level was compared to the humming of a refrigerator.
“Sure it’s only as loud as a refrigerator,” the retired colonial, with 4,000 flight hours said, “if you’re on one side of the Mahoosuc Range and it’s on the other.”
No comments:
Post a Comment