Northern Hills Homeowner's Association

Massport Responds to Noise Report

Sep 13, 2000

Airport News Around the Nation
Lexington Minuteman
September 7, 2000

Massport responds to noise report
By Barbara Forster, Correspondent

Noise metrics was the topic under discussion at Bedford Town Hall on Tuesday, Sept. 5. The Noise Workgroup and Massport representatives met to hear Masport's response to the group's recommendations onways to measure and report aviation noise generated at Hanscom Air Field.

Although the decision to continue working with the Noise Group was a definite ''yes,'' few of Massport's responses were wholehearted endorsements.

In most cases, Massport agreed to do a portion of a recommendation, or do it in a slightly different manner than the group requested. For example, the noise folks want the Time Above -- the time noise exceeds a particular sound level -- mapped in contour areas to show those areas experiencing 30 or more minutes per day of noise above 55 decibels. Massport said they would
report 60 minutes ''because the 30-minute contour is likely to reflect inaccuracies or oversimplification in the noise modeling at large distances from the airport.''

''We're not opposed to showing what you want,'' said Massport representative
Tom Ennis, who has worked directly with the group for the past 18 months.
''We just have to find a mechanism to do that.''

Ennis also stressed that the response was strictly a ''draft'' document.
''This is not set in stone,'' he said. ''We're looking forward to getting your
comments -- in most cases.''

''We knew where the sensitivities were in some areas, so now our job is to
be persuasive,'' said Rein Beeuwkes of Concord, who heads the noise workgroup.
''In a report, you're just putting black marks on paper; the whole challenge
is to effect change for the benefit of the community.''

The list of 14 recommendations included a wide range of noise measurement issues. The topies varied from listing ''assumptions and model parameters''
used by Massport noise consultants for input to the Integrated Noise Model,
to ''expected short-term variations in noise from the long-term values''
and using different metrics to demonstrate noise energy.

Continued discussions are next. The work group plans to meet to examine
the responses and make further suggestions. Ennis plans to continue reviewing
comments from the group.

The noise group delivered the two-part report to Massport last September; the first section focused on abatement and mitigation topics. In June, Massport and the group reached a meeting of the minds on mitigation and
abatement.

Massport forwarded the report to the state Environmental Protection Agency
and will also forward the agency's final response.

The noise group was called for by the Secretary of Environmental Affairs
in June 1997, when a certificate was issued for the Generic Environmental
Impact Review update for Hanscom. As a state agency, Massport is required
to periodically submit a report for public review on the environmental impacts of its operations and resulting mitigations.