WINOOSKI — The City of Burlington has announced a new plan for soundproofing the 2,600 homes that lie in the wake of the F-35 fighter jets.
Since the F-35s arrived in Burlington more than a year ago, bringing high-decibel noise to homes across Chittenden County, the city has said it would institute a sound insulation program. But the question of funding loomed large: though 90% of the funds would come from the Federal Aviation Administration, 10% would have to be matched locally.
Now, Mayor Miro Weinberger announced at a press conference Thursday, Vermont Gas has agreed to foot the $550,000 bill necessary to secure $5 million in federal funding for 2021. “I’ve been hoping we could get to this day since taking office,” he said.
VGS will pitch in using state energy efficiency utility funds, which the utility receives to weatherize and insulate buildings. The sound mitigation program will double as an energy efficiency program, insulating homes from the cold as well as noise.
Still, uncertainty remains. Though the program was formally approved by the FAA on Oct. 16, the project remains a pilot program, as VGS has committed to only two years of funding for sound mitigation.
“The hope is that this pilot lays the groundwork for that local match to be the way this works going forward,” Weinberger said, adding that it could continue for “many years to come.”
That time frame is also a point of contention. Though the noise of the F-35s has been blamed for serious health concerns for some living in its wake, the sound mitigation project is projected to take decades to complete.
In 2021, only 10 to 12 homes out of the 2,600 eligible will be insulated through the program; in 2022, if federal funds come through as expected, that number will rise to 50 homes. Program estimates run at around 25 years to complete sound insulation for all affected homes.
And the impacts of the noise are disproportionate. In her remarks at the press conference, Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott voiced her support for the new program, but noted that the jets had been a serious blow for Winooski: 96% of Winooski’s subsidized housing for elderly and those with disabilities fall within that flight path, she said.
Forty-three percent of Winooski’s residents live with noise levels above 65 decibels, per FAA mapping, higher than neighboring South Burlington. Opponents of the F-35s say that the flight path over Vermont’s most diverse community is an example of environmental racism.
The soundproofing program is “too little, too late,” said Kai Mikkel Førlie, an activist and member of People for Peace and Security, a local grassroots group organizing against the F-35s.
“The airplanes are here,” he said. “Talk about cart before the horse. The work should have been completed long before the F-35s showed up. It should have been done long before the F-16s were here.”
The prior sound mitigation program, which ran for more than 30 years, bought out affected houses and tore them down. At the press conference, Weinberger said he was thrilled to see the program replaced. “We’ve nearly turned around the ocean liner,” he said.
Other grant money was recently allocated for the F-35s: In September, the FAA awarded $6.3 billion to the Burlington International Airport, much of which will be used to soundproof the nearby Chamberlin Elementary School in South Burlington.
The announcement came just one week before the final F-35 arrived in the city.
