Theresa Maser is used to getting an earful.
As the noise program director at the Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Maser fields about 350 complaints annually from angry and irritated citizens bombarded by aircraft noise. But she suspects the complaint calls will subside somewhat under a $15 million, decade-long Federal Aviation Administration-funded project to soundproof 650 homes and apartments that border the airport.
Beginning this summer, some 30 homes will be outfitted with special sound-deadening doors and windows, denser attic and wall insulation and improvements to ventilation systems to help circulate air when windows and doors are closed to muffle airplane noise.
Between 80 and 100 homes will be soundproofed annually beginning in 2003, Maser said.
Each home could cost up to $50,000 to soundproof, Maser said.
Money from the FAA fund also will include purchasing undeveloped residential land, Maser said.
The FAA also plans to install more than $1 million in sound monitoring devices that will be placed around Anchorage this summer to track sound levels and identify the aircraft causing it.
The sound-blocking home improvements are voluntary to homeowners and will cost nothing to them if they opt for the upgrades, Maser said.
In return for the improvements, homeowners must sign an aviation easement, which allows the airport to use the airspace over the their property. The easement prohibits property owners from suing the airport over noise or for damage caused by vibrations.
Commercial property owners or those who built their homes after Oct. 1, 1998, do not qualify for the soundproofing improvements, Maser said.
The "quieter home" program in funded by the FAA's Aviation Trust Fund, through taxes on airplane tickets and fuel, said Patty Sullivan, an environmental specialist with the FAA's airport division in Anchorage.
The state-owned airport will have to contribute about 6 percent of the $15 million Anchorage noise mitigating project, money that comes from airport landing fees and fuel taxes, Maser said.
In other words, according to Maser and Sullivan, those responsible for making the noise are paying to help mitigate it.
The FAA has funded more than $2 billion in similar projects in the Lower 48 since the program began a dozen years ago, Sullivan said, adding that airports are required to perform studies to get the noise-mitigating money.
Anchorage completed its study in 1999.
Sullivan said soundproofing homes is only one step in mitigating airport noise in Anchorage and elsewhere. The federal agency is working with municipalities, including Anchorage, to require stricter residential zoning near airports and to develop building codes that would require increased soundproofing in homes.
While some communities across the United States need extensive measures to reduce the impact of airport noise, such as home soundproofing, for other communities, like Fairbanks and Juneau, it was a matter of purchasing undeveloped residential land or buying out a homeowner.
In 1999, the FAA gave Fairbanks International Airport $350,000 to purchase undeveloped residential property near the airport.
"We don't have a noise problem here, certainly not to the extent that we have to ask for any more money,'' said Doyle Ruff, manager of Fairbanks International.
"We're very fortunate ... the community has always been very supportive of the airport," he said.
The FAA last year bought out one homeowner in Juneau near the airport. The home and one-acre lot cost the FAA $400,000, Sullivan said.
"Only one residence met the criteria," said Allan Hesse, manager of Juneau International Airport. "Our airport is a pretty quiet airport."
What Juneau residents do complain about is noise from helicopter and airplane flightseeing traffic during the summer tourist season. But those operations are not based out of Juneau International so they don't qualify for noise-mitigation money by the FAA, said Sullivan.
The eligibility for the "quieter home program" in Anchorage was based on studies and computer modeling of aircraft noise during day and night operations. To qualify for the home improvements in Anchorage, an average of 65 decibels or louder had to be recorded for an area.
That's about the same noise level as having a face-to-face conversation, Maser said.
Aircraft noise recorded between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. was weighted with an additional 10 decibels, because that's when most people are sleeping and more likely to be disturbed by airplane noise, Maser said.
According to airport officials, the human ear perceives an increase of 10 decibels as twice as loud.
Michael Hotaling, a San Diego-based noise consultant with C&S Engineers Inc., said 65 decibels is the limit at which people begin to find sound annoying.
In addition to Anchorage, Hotaling and his company have worked with several communities in the Lower 48 on noise-mitigation projects.
Residential development occurs within 1,200 feet of the Anchorage airport boundary on the east side, and a half mile to the south. The airport is bordered by ocean to the north and west.
Anchorage rivals Memphis, Tenn., as the busiest cargo airport in the United States, averaging nearly 520 cargo flights weekly. And with hundreds of takeoffs and landings daily from cargo and passenger aircraft, nearby Anchorage residents are inundated with some type of airplane noise. But airport officials are only offering the sound mitigation improvements to those who have decibel levels at or above the 65 decibel level, as outlined on a computer-generated map.
"A myriad of people would like to participate in the program," Maser said. "We recognize that noise doesn't stop at the line."
Ironically, most complaints the airport receives about noise aren't from folks who live near the airport, who either accept the noise or are somewhat used to it, Maser said.
People most often complain when aircraft are forced into a different flight pattern due to high winds, bad weather, or by maintenance or snow removal operations on one of the airport's runways, Maser said.
Airport officials are planning a symposium sometime in March to give all area homeowners ideas and information on how to soundproof their houses against aircraft noise, Maser said.
