Members of an anti-jet-noise group took a somewhat new tack this week by taking their fight to the Island County Board of Health.
Ultimately, however, they weren’t successful in convincing the majority of board members to take any action.
Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, or COER, rallied the “victims of jet noise” to speak to the board of elected officials about health problems allegedly caused by the exposure to the EA-18G Growlers that practice touch-and-go landings at the Outlying Field Coupeville.
The citizens presented the board members with studies on health effects of jet noise; several people spoke about their personal experience with such things as hearing loss while living under the flight path.
Residents reported experiencing noise past 130 decibels, which is well above the level considered safe.
COER presented the board with a list of things it can do to educate and protect the public, including closing Rhododendron Park.
Coupeville resident Jerome Squire said it’s not unpatriotic to speak out against the harmful impacts of the noise.
“The Navy provided me with a living,” he said. “I love the Navy. I don’t like the OLF.”
Several people, including former Commissioner Mac McDowell, spoke about the importance of the outlying field to training and the Navy’s mission. McDowell urged the board to allow the Navy to complete an environmental assessment.
After the lengthy public comment period — which got a little rowdy at times — the board members had a lively discussion of their own, but ended up heeding McDowell’s advice.
Dr. Brad Thomas, county health officer, asked the board for direction. He noted that the studies provided mainly focus on the health effects of noise from commercial jets, which he noted is longer duration but lower volume than noise from military jets. He said military aircraft are exempt from regulation and questioned what a county health board could do.
Still, he said he felt that the board should have a response.
“I want to nudge you a little bit,” he said. “Maybe we really truly need to make a statement, one way or the other, just to acknowledge a huge community demand on us.”
Grethe Cammermeyer, a retired military nurse and a member of the hospital board, suggested that the board put together a work group to look into possible ways to mitigate the problem.
Commissioner Helen Price Johnson said the complaints have merit. She said the Growlers are significantly louder than the previous aircraft. She said the noise-related data that the Navy relies on doesn’t reflect what the community experiences because it’s averaged out over entire days and doesn’t capture the intense noise of the Growlers.
She suggested that the board urge the Navy to make the jets quieter.
“The same people who make the Growler also make stealth aircraft,” she said, “so that they say it can’t be done is very difficult for me to accept.”
The three other members, however, decided to leave the issue to the federal government.
Commissioner Jill Johnson said she’s more concerned about job loss if the Navy base closes.
She said being poor is a risk factor for health problems.
She said some of the people may have a legitimate concern, like the noise exposure to children playing at the Rhododendron Park. But, she argued, much of the rhetoric is overblown.
“A lot of what was happening here today was a Haight-Ashbury revival of people who have an agenda, and they’re using public health to accomplish it,” she said. “I’m not going to participate in that.”
Oak Harbor Mayor Bob Severns and Commissioner Rick Hannold agreed, saying that a lot more people in the community support the Navy, jets noise and all.
