Finnegan Schick Photo
A city official tried out a new argument to seek to convince East Shore neighbors to support paving more of Tweed-New Haven Airport’s runway: It will mean less noise.
City Economic Development Director Matthew Nemerson made the argument at a meeting in City Hall of the Development Commission. He said that if the city can win state permission to pave another 1,500 of runway at Tweed (and thus lure more commercial carreirs), takeoffs and landings would get quieter.
Increasing the length of a runway allows the plane to gain a higher altitude by the time it crosses the airspace of nearby homes, Nemerson said at the commission meeting Tuesday. A shorter runway means louder planes overhead. Extending the runway by paving over safety overrun zones at Tweed may actually reduce, not increase, the noise level on the East Shore, he said.
Nemerson’s comments came three weeks after around 100 people attended boisterous community meetings about the plan, most of them protesting the city’s plan to pave the airport’s runway safety zones. The expansion would give 70-seat planes the 6,100 feet of runway they require to take off.
“We’re doing this to be competitive,” Nemerson said, arguing that a busier airport would boost the local economy. He added that the city will work respectfully with the neighborhoods around the airport to reduce the sound of planes overhead. The city has agreed to close the crosswind runway, which directs planes over Morris Cove homes.
The idea flopped with neighbors who gathered Tuesday night for the monthly East Shore Community management Team at the firehouse in Morris Cove.
Members of groups like Voters Opposed to Tweed Expansion do point out the damaging effects of noise pollution from airports on the health of people living nearby. Katha Cox of Morris Cove said the sound of airplanes during the night can disturb sleep cycles.
But, Cox said of the four daily commercial flights currently at Tweed, “right now I can’t say the noise is a problem.” These flights are limited to between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.; charter and private jets fly at any time of the night.
Private and charter jets do not have the same noise restrictions as larger passenger planes, and can be louder than their commercial counterparts, said Cox.
These private jets often carry patients to New Haven for cancer treatment or other health reasons, a fact that she said makes nighttime disturbances from the jets understandable.
Cox asked whether the runway expansion is necessary. John Wayne Airport in Orange County, California. has dozens of daily flights, she said, but its runway is only 100 feet longer than Tweed’s current length of 5,600.
A 1974 report by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommended minimizing noise levels during the night to prevent sleep disturbance.
According to a recent article by Reuters Health, noise pollution can cause hypertension and cardiovascular disease. There are 185 houses around New Haven’s airport in the East Shore within a 65-decibel-plus zone, well above the EPA’s recommended 55 daily decibel limit.
The roar of planes is regular and unavoidable, Cox said. If flights at Tweed increase from four to 25 a day — as Tweed and city officials have suggested — Cox calculates that a plane will be heard every 36 minutes. Soon, the East Shore may be continuously subjected to the noise of Tweed, changing the quality of life for everybody within earshot, she said.
To lessen the impact of the noise on neighbors in houses under the path of the planes, the city has promised to install new soundproof windows, doors, insulation, and air conditioning systems.
Cox criticized these soundproofing measures because they keep people indoors. Soundproof windows may keep the noise out of the house, but when people spend more time in their yards during the summer, the noise from the planes returns, she said.
Noise pollution however, is not the largest reason for the East Shore’s opposition to the paving of the airport overruns. Lisa Milone said that her neighbors no longer trust the city government.
New Haven and East Haven mayors agreed in 2009 to not lengthen the runway, but have since announced plans to expand the runway by 1,500 feet.
“People don’t like to be lied to,” Milone said. Morris Cove resident John Cox also questioned whether the extending of the runway serves the city’s best interests, and said that the city’s money might be spent better elsewhere.
US Airways Express is currently the only passenger airline at Tweed.
Noisy Neighborhood
Wasilewski, Cruz, and team Chair Barbara Carroll at the meeting.
Noise was on people’s minds at the Tuesday night management team — though most of the talk didn’t involve airplanes. It involved loud music, motorcycles, and fireworks after dark.
Top east side police Capt. Holly Wasilewski and East Short District Manager Sgt. Wilfredo Cruz fielded questions about how to reduce the noise level during the summer, a time when beach visitors and outdoor recreation increase noise pollution in the area.
If somebody files a noise complaint with the police department, an officer is sent to address the source of the noise, Cruz said. The town’s hours for quiet are from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. on weeknights.
Cruz said the increase of loud motorcycle traffic during the summer also disturbs many neighbors.
Several people at the meeting said fireworks were set off around 11 p.m. on June 6 at Anthony’s Ocean View Fine Catering. Anthony’s hosts wedding receptions and the festivities often go late into the night and early morning.
That's heroic rationale - the long bomb - the hail Mary. Good luck with that logic.