Riguardo lo Snowbird
• Operation Snowbird (OSB) started in 1972 by the Air National Guard at DM to provide two-week training sessions during winter months in order to maintain combat proficiency of northern, winter-bound ANG units.
• About 2000, OSB changed significantly to year-around, pre-deployment combat training adding foreign and sister-service pilot training.
• New aircraft were introduced that were not in the traditional DM Mission, including Tornados, Harriers, F-15s, F-16s, F-18s, Sea Stallion Choppers. The result is increased safety risk and noise impacts on city residents.
• The shift in the Snowbird Program was done without an environmental assessment or public input. Consequently, there has been no safety or noise assessment for residents under the flight paths. The Program is currently operating outside of federal NEPA law.
• This shift contradicts the 1978 letter written to the Tucson community by the Air Force after the fatal 1978 crash near UA. In it the AF said it would finish converting DM to the A-10 (dual engine) airplane and explore limiting ANG aircraft at DM.
• The A-10 is the safest and least noisy fighter aircraft in the AF inventory. The Harrier, in contrast, has the worst safety record of any fighter. An F-18 returning to base in Miramar 2 years ago crashed into a San Diego neighborhood, killing a family of four. These two planes are almost 4 times louder than the A-10. The whole F-15 fleet was grounded 3 years ago for age-related metal fatigue.
• The AF is now conducting an after-the-fact EA following many complaints to Washington by Tucson residents. We are concerned that the EA will be an attempt to simply justify the existing Program. For example, it is not looking at reasonable basing alternatives for the expanded Program, i.e. Gila Bend A F Auxiliary Field, Pinal Air Park, Libby Air Field.
• Ever expanding air operations over populated urban Tucson contemplated by the Snowbird Program end up costing large numbers of residents under the flight paths in terms of safety, noise, property values and social justice. It will eventually impede the future of Tucson; namely, the important hospitality and eco-tourism industry and the quality-of-life needed to attract high tech, bioscience businesses to the City.
• The very difficult conclusion is that because of location and urban encroachment DM can no longer think of itself primarily as an expanding jet fighter base. At the same time, DM makes an important economic contribution and its active duty and ex-service members have contributed greatly to the Tucson community. It is important that the community and DM work together to define a vital future role compatible with its urban location.
What questions should I ask? What comments should I make?
To justify the current and future missions of Operation Snowbird, the U.S. Air Force must prepare an Environmental Assessment (EA). The Air Force has asked the public to note their concerns in order to help determine which subjects the EA should address. You can provide your own suggestions in writing. Some of the subjects that you might ask the Air Force to consider in its EA are:
• The EA is expected to examine the proposed air operations over the next several years of Operation Snowbird. The last OSB EA was prepared in 1978. A recent Air Force Study, the Wyle Study, found that the OSB had substantially changed from the original Program and recommended that an EA be done. The EA should review the history of the Program since the last EIS in 1978, document the changes, and determine if those changes impact significantly on the quality of life, safety risk, property values, and social justice of Tucson residents.
• The EA should examine the proposed Program’s aircraft safety and noise impacts on Tucson residents, as well as the impacts of their flight paths and their frequency of flights. There is significant urban development on three sides of DM Air Force Base. In addition air operations are constricted by mountains to the North and East and a commercial airport (TIA) to the West. Consequently, the main runway flight path extends directly over populated, urban mid-town Tucson.
• The EA should analyze the effects of the potential crashes and other accidents as OSB aircraft must fly at low levels over densely populated urban areas to arrive and depart DM. The safety/risk analysis should go beyond citing historical Class A mishaps (serious injury or $1 million in damage) of particular aircraft types to indicate safety risk over populated urban areas where the loss of a bolt could cause a fatality.
• The EA should discuss the rationale for the AF policy change of increasing the number and variety of aircraft under the OSB Program from its 1978 letter to the Tucson community after the fatal crash near the University in which 2 sisters died in a burning car. In that letter the AF promised to take steps to reduce the potential for a similar accident. It advised that the conversion from A-7s to A-10s (the safest fighter aircraft) would be completed over the following year and that Air National Guard activity at the Base would be reduced.
• The EA should analyze the change and expansion of the Snowbird Program in terms of environmental justice as required by NEPA procedures and Executive Order 12898, Environmental Justice. The analysis should include neighborhoods under the approach flight paths and the so called “race track” pattern. The shift in the Snowbird Program from 1978 has had a significant economic, social, and health impact on several minority and low income neighborhoods. In 2004 the Julia Keen Elementary School was closed for safety and noise reasons at the request of DM-50 Base supporters, who do not live in the neighborhood. This was the time when major changes in the type of aircraft brought in under the Snowbird Program had just been made. The failure to conduct an EA prior to the changes resulted in this concern not being properly analyzed and addressed.
• The EA should give substantial weight to the effects of noise of Operation Snowbird aircraft. Noise is a grave concern to many residents of Tucson since most residents strongly value Tucson’s special weather and natural environment and its resulting unique open-air, quality-of-life.
• The EA should include a Noise Exposure Map that shows DNL contours. The map should include a 65-dB contour.
“DNL” is the 24-hour day-night average of the sound exposure level, as measured in decibels (dB). The 65-dB contour is especially important, because the Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development both stipulate that all properties inside the 65-dB contour are “incompatible with residential use.” Substantial restrictions are placed on any property with that designation.
• The EA should analyze the effects of sound exposure levels upon the property values of the affected neighborhoods. This analysis should include changes in the tax base of the affected neighborhoods, as well as changes in property-tax revenues collected from those neighborhoods.
Many studies show the relationship between aircraft noise and the loss of property value. For example, in 1994 the Federal Aviation Administration and consultant Booz-Allen & Hamilton developed a methodology for evaluating the impact of aircraft noise on housing values. They demonstrated that in moderately priced neighborhoods in the vicinity of Los Angeles International Airport, noise diminished property values by 18.6 percent, or 1.33 percent per decibel. A separate analysis, prepared for the Orange County Board of Supervisors, showed the diminution of property value averaged 27.4 percent in the vicinity of the three California airports that were studied.
• The EA should analyze the effects of peak sound exposure levels. The FAA commonly uses DNL (daily average) measurements to evaluate noise impacts which minimizes the effect on the resident below. Residents of Tucson are most disturbed by peak level interruptions. A thorough analysis of the effects of peak levels is critical to an understanding of the impacts of noise.
• Analysis of the noise impacts should be based upon sound measurements of actual flights of aircraft over Tucson. The flights should be conducted at the power settings, altitudes, directions, and paths which the aircraft will use when approaching and departing D-M.
• The EA should analyze the effects of sound exposure levels upon the livability of the affected neighborhoods. This analysis should consider the consequences of: homeowners and tenants migrating from the neighborhoods as they seek quieter surroundings; owner-occupied homes being converted into rental units; lower rents in neighborhoods that have become noisier; and properties allowed to physically deteriorate as pride-of-ownership erodes.
• The EA should analyze the effects of increased noise and safety risk upon neighborhood schools under the flight paths—including the following: Griffen Foundation Charter, Robison Elementary, Howenstein High, St Ambrose Elementary, and Sam Hughes Elementary.
• The EA should analyze the economic effects of increased noise upon Tucson’s key Hospitality Industry, both generally as Tucson works to attract winter visitors with downtown renewal and specifically the Zoo, the Arizona Inn, the Lodge on the Desert, the Botanical Gardens and B&Bs under the flight paths.
• The EA should consider alternative sites for the OSB Program that are close to Tucson and are accessible to the Barry M. Goldwater Range. Alternative sites might include the Libby Airfield in Sierra Vista, The Gila Bend Auxiliary Airfield in Gila Bend, the Pinal Air Park in Marana, and others. These are fields with little urban development and would put citizens at low or no risk.
• The EA should analyze the health effects of increased noise. In a publication called “Community Noise”(edited by Birgitta Berglund and Thomas Lindvall; 1995), the World Health Organization compiled the results of more than nine hundred separate studies of the effects of noise upon humans. The studies demonstrated that increased levels of noise causes—among other things—elevated blood pressure, vasoconstriction, headaches, irritability, instability, argumentativeness, anxiety, nervousness, insomnia, and loss of appetite. The effects were most pronounced among children.
• The EA should analyze the effects of air pollution from the aircraft of Operation Snowbird. Exhaust from the aircraft will affect Tucson’s air quality. Further, hydrocarbons will be released to the atmosphere during storage and transfer of aviation fuel.
• The EA should analyze the economic benefits that Operation Snowbird brings to Tucson. The analysis should compare the economic benefits of Operation Snowbird to the total annual economic activity of the community.
Si ripete fino alla nausea la preoccupazione del forte rumore degli aerei che vengono continuamente segnalati a Tucson. A quanto pare è un problema che deve ancora essere risolto. Curioso. Nessuno ha segnalato alcun suono durante il passaggio della formazione a V quando sorvolò Tucson il 13 marzo 1997.
Questo tanto per chiarire che la mancanza di rumore è un punto fondamentale. Se per Insider neanche 100 testimoni sono attendibili, perché l'occhiometro si sbaglia praticamente sempre (lo dice lui), non credo che l'uditometro sia altrettato inattendibile.
Ultima modifica di Alessandro Cacciatore il 29/12/2011, 19:57, modificato 1 volta in totale.
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