UPDATE: This story was updated on April 19.
New F-35A aircraft that may be based at the Burlington Air Guard Base could be bad news for South Burlington residents. The US Air Force has released a draft environmental impact statement (EIS) of the potential environmental impact of the possible fleet.
South Burlington is one of four sites being considered as a new home for the new F-35s.
The new F-35s will likely be louder than their predecessor, the F-16. Noise levels around the base are expected to increase to 65 dB DNL or higher and noise from the Air Guard base is expected to expand its reach into residential areas by two to three hundred acres. The decibel level is calculated on what is known as the “Day-Night Average Sound Level” (DNL), which is the average noise level over a 24-hour period, weighted for overnight hours when there is a decrease in community background noise.
Residential areas northwest and southeast of the airport could also expect noise levels to increase to 65 to 85 dB DNL, according to the EIS report, from the intersection of Essex and Williston Road near the Taft Corners shopping center and Rossignol Park and then diagonally up to Winooski making an arc over Main Street, LaFountain Street, North Street and West Lane.
The National Research Council Committee on Aeronautics Research and Technology for Environmental Compatibility puts anything higher than 75 db DNL as likely to annoy more than 37 percent of the population. It also states this level of noise “may begin to cause hearing loss.” Noise levels of 65 and 70 db DNL are predicted to cause “significant” and “severe” community reaction, while 60 and below are predicted to be less intrusive.
On the flip side, the report says areas affected by such a high level of noise are eligible for federal noise abatement funds. Vermont National Guard Adjutant Gen. Michael Dubie said the Air Force is looking for ways to reduce the possible impact of the noise.
“Noise is always a concern, even in our F-16 fleet, we do what we call noise abatement procedures, either when taking off or landing, to try to mitigate any adverse noise on the community,” he said.
The report is based mostly on computer modeling because the aircrafts are so new, says Dubie, so it is still uncertain exactly how much noise they will produce.
“The F-35 is a leading technology airplane and it’s just starting to fly in other parts of the country, mostly in the test phase, and consequently there isn’t a lot of real data on the noise,” he said. “So a lot of it’s computer modeling. And they use a lot of the noise that’s come out of these early flying airplanes to help build the model for Vermont. We don’t know how much louder except for the data that’s been extrapolated from other airplanes, and it looks like in some regimes it’s a little bit louder.”
The Air Force will be holding three days of hearings in Burlington in May to get feedback from residents who may have no choice but to cohabitate with the new fighter jets.
Other states under consideration are Utah, Florida, Idaho and South Carolina. Burlington Air Guard Base and Hill Air Force Base in Utah are listed as preferred alternatives in the EIS report.
Dubie said having the operational base in Burlington would have a positive impact on the city.
“This is the airplane that the Air Force has pinned their future on. The Air Force – the projection is they want to buy 1,763 of these airplanes. They’ve only designated the amount for preferred bases in the world. And Burlington is very pleased that we are one of those preferred locations,” Dubie said.
