Letter: Navy noise impact greater in Oak Harbor schools
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, April 5, 2023
Editor,
Several of the Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, or COER, questioned the data referenced in my letter of Jan. 11. To those in doubt I refer you to the Growler Environmental Impact Statement Figure 6-2 and Figure 6-3. You don’t even need to read; these are pictures. All the schools in Coupeville are within a few blocks of each other on South Main Street, outside the 65 day night level noise zone.
I lived on South Main Street for over three years within a block of every school in Coupeville. It was easier to hear the announcer for Friday night football games than the Growlers. While it’s true there have been complaints from the teachers in the Oak Harbor schools, there has never been a complaint from a teacher in the Coupeville schools.
Another commenter complained that the Navy did not even study the effects on education. The National Environmental Policy Act does not require original studies. It requires a review of published studies. That was done. The problem with the studies to date is a lack of consistency in results. The only area where a consistent correlation seems to exist is in early childhood education during initial speech development. However, even this seems to disappear by the third grade. The middle years have shown little to no correlation and in high school the correlation is reversed. The effects on speech development are the reasons that Oak Harbor and Island County do not permit daycare centers in the high noise zones. None of the Coupeville schools are in the high noise zones.
Suppose original research studies were required. The two Whidbey Island school districts should present an excellent social laboratory. The Growlers have flown over Whidbey for 15 years. During the last few years, the split between the airfields was 80% Outlying Landing Field in Coupeville to 20% Ault Field, versus the opposite loading the previous years. If test scores in Coupeville went down in the last years, while test scores in Oak Harbor went up, noise might be a factor. If both districts track equally throughout changes in flight activity, perhaps the noise is simply an annoyance without a measurable impact on student performance as suggested in the EIS. If Oak Harbor improves without a corresponding decrease in Coupeville performance, then maybe noise levels in Oak Harbor are enough to negatively impact education but not so in Coupeville.
I used to teach adults in a classroom about 300 feet below the approach path to Lindbergh Field in San Diego. When a plane landed, everyone had to stop talking for 30-60 seconds. It was an annoyance, an interruption and it added to the amount of time it took to convey the same information.
Oak Harbor schools experience direct overflights that probably create the same kind of impact. It seems most likely the Oak Harbor schools are the ones of concern to the judge since none of the Coupeville schools experience direct overflights. This is one of the many reasons for selecting the loading option of 80% / 20% in favor of the OLF in the first place and why I suggested increasing this even further to minimize impacts on education as requested by the judge.
Jennifer S Meyer
Anacortes
