Board President, Alderman At Large William A. White Jr., explained the need for a more thorough analysis of the aircraft noise problem confronting the city.

By Jim Clark

The Somerville Board of Alderman passed a resolution at their last regular meeting on April 23, requesting that the Administration, through city departments such as SomerStat and Communications, work with the Board to develop a strategy to analyze the increasing use of Runway 33L at Logan Airport and document the adverse noise impacts of this increased use on Somerville residents.

Alderman At Large William A. White Jr., a co-sponsor of the resolution along with Alderman At Large Mary Jo Rossetti, explained what a huge impact the airplane noise has on the residents living in the area.

Alderman White asked that flight patterns and the number of residents affected be analyzed and be compared with other runways and communities.

“For a long time this Board has been putting forth resolutions and orders about the noise being generated by Logan Airport,” Alderman White said. “The folks who don’t live under the flights that fly over, they may wonder what the heck’s going on here and why we keep doing this. For the folks who live under it, they can really understand because this really has a significant impact.”

White asked those at the meeting to imagine living in a house where the fly-overs occur every two minutes, hour after hour. “In the summer, if you have your window open you cannot watch TV, so you have to have the air conditioning on,” White explained. “Parents have to try to figure out where they can put their crib, because their baby gets woken up at 11:30 or 12 o’clock at night when one of these jets flies over.”

White said that people have contacted him and said that the situation is so bad they are considering moving.

“Some people say, ‘Well, that’s what they get for living under it,’” White continued. “Folks don’t usually think about flight patterns before they buy a house. A lot of times they might be checking it out, but they’re not there when the flights occur.”

White indicated that what may be most frustrating is that the more resolutions and orders the Board puts in, the more planes seem to take off from Logan airport and fly over the city.

White further noted that back in 2012 approximately 12,000 flights took off over Somerville, and that in 2013 it went up to 18,000. Last year, according to White’s data, more than 25,000 flights were recorded.

“It really has doubled within a couple of years,” according to White. “If that carries forward we’ll have an all-time record of flights out of runway 33L. So we really have to do something.”

Alderman White affirmed the availability of data mining personnel who can analyze the situation and help find solutions to the problem.

“I would like them to take a look at the flight patterns that affect us, and the number of folks who are affected,” White said. “It runs anywhere from Assembly Square to Ten Hills. Goes all the way out through Somerville and even affects people in Arlington, Belmont and Watertown.”

White speculated that Somerville has the loudest noise affecting the most people in the entire area. “We have to put on a strong campaign,” he asserted.

Alderman Rossetti announced that Professor Jonathan Levy’s class at Boston University did a study of this problem and that there would be a presentation of its findings on April 30. Rossetti stated that she would attend the presentation and report back to the Board on its findings.

Rossetti did express a concern that the time frame of the study had minimal flights, however, and that three days after the completion of the study the constituents that participated in it were inundated with the plane noise again and that they were extremely frustrated.

“I did get a call from two people who are moving, they’re selling their houses,” Rossetti said. “In my neighborhood there is a house for sale and the couple and their realtor were clenching their teeth during the open house, hoping that the planes would not be flying overhead.”

Rossetti expressed her concern that there have been major changes in the noise levels in the city due to the over-flights, and that something must be done to alleviate the problem.

The resolution was approved without opposition and the matter referred to committee.