Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee releases study about how communities can deal with runway noise, describes base mission
on June 12, 2013 at 9:30 PM, updated June 12, 2013 at 10:09 PM
Wayne M. Williams, Westover Air Reserve Base civil engineer, discusses a zone map of the base and surrounding areas marking off safety and noise issues at public hearing in Chicopee Wednesday.Dave Roback, The Republican CHICOPEE -- Each C-5B jet has four engines. Each weighs 7,900 pounds and is 27 feet long. Maintenance entails running each engine for an hour at Westover Air Reserve Base.
That's one explanation for noise produced at the 2,511-acre base, which since 1996 has become a maintenance hub for the Air Force's massive cargo jets, officials said at a public hearing Wednesday. "That generates substantial noise, which is what generates that noise bubble to the west," said Wayne M. Williams, base civil engineer, pointing to a decibel map bulging toward James Street.
The base has 16 of its own C-5Bs and others fly in for maintenance from around the nation, officials said.
The hearing at Chicopee High School on Front Street was to discuss the base's newly released Air Installation Compatible Use Zone Study.
The 90-page study describes the base's mission, such as how the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan prompted increased use of the base, and delineates areas around the base that are suitable or incompatible for residential and business uses.
The study concludes with a dozen recommendations Chicopee, Ludlow, South Hadley and Springfield can consider to ensure smooth relations. One recommendation would be to establish real estate-disclosure ordinances for properties considered in high-noise zones near the base.
The hearing lasted about a half hour and consisted of a dozen Westover representatives and one or two non-media people. The only questions were asked by reporters.
A major change at the base since the last such study was done in 1996 was Westover becoming a maintenance headquarters for the C-5s. At least one of the giant planes is taken apart and tested every two weeks, Williams said.
The 1972 federal Noise Control Act requires that bases do such periodic studies. The goal is two-fold: to help communities protect people from noise and other potential problems, and to help the Air Force by discouraging incompatible uses near such bases, he said.
For example, tall buildings and other structures near bases can be dangerous for aircraft, he said.
The idea is that the greater the distance from a runway, the less the effect from sustained jet noise. A normal conversation is 60 to 65 decibels. A jet engine is 140 decibels or more, with such exposure risking permanent hearing damage without ear protection.
The study includes tables and maps showing noise levels, or "noise contours," emanating from the base in relation to different zones of land in neighboring communities. For example, a residential area in Chicopee at the end of the base's Runway 5 is mostly residential, multifamily and high density, according to the study.
Several residential parcels in Ludlow are just within an area known as an Accident Potential Zone, because of their proximity to runways, and a noise zone where the town borders Granby, according to the study.
"Springfield is nearly 1.5 miles south of the base, and is beyond the extents of the ... noise zones," according to the study.