[Note:  The nature, scope, and usefulness (if any) of the state-law
environmental review Massport says will take place remain totally
unclear.]

Bedford Journal, 5/31/01

Hanscom analysis to trigger at flight 49
Bedford students take on airline noise

By Barbara Forster, Correspondent

The magic number at Hanscom Air Field is 49.

When the number of commercial operations at the air field reaches that
level, additional environmental review of the impact on the surrounding area
is supposed to occur. In the 1995 GEIR (Generic Environmental Impact
Review), Massport reviewed the environmental effects of only 48 flights.

Flight number 49 is just around the corner.

Shuttle America plans to resume flights to LaGuardia on June 15 - a move
that bumps the airline up to 34 daily operations. Boston-Maine Airways, a
subsidiary of Pan Am, expects to begin 14 operations in mid-June on
19-seaters to the Cape and the islands during the summer and change the
route to New York City in winter. Although the two airlines total only 48
operations, USAir and Midway Airlines expect to provide service from the
field to Raleigh-Durham and to Philadelphia respectively in the fall.

"We've made it very clear (to the airlines) that somebody's going to do an
environmental analysis for the 49th flight and above," said Massport
representative Thomas Ennis at the Hanscom Area Towns Committee meeting in
Concord on Thursday, May 24.

Ennis added that although Massport has not yet determined when the review
begins or who - the agency or the airlines - picks up the tab, the analysis
would take place before planes get in the air.

At its next meeting in June, the Massport Board of Directors will most
likely approve Pan Am's request to start business negotiations with the
agency. As of May 24, the airline did not have an OK from the Federal
Aviation Administration to take to the air, but that approval is expected to
be granted in time for the airline to meet its start date.


Students study noise

Bedford High School math teacher C.G. Venkatesh and one of his students,
junior John Twombly, presented an aviation noise study to the HATS
selectmen. The study, which was a math class project for 11th and 12th grade
students, explained the difference between traditional decibel or logarithm
scale used to measure and compare noise levels and linear changes in sound
intensity.

For example, percentage of change in sound level between single engine
recreational aircraft, which measure 67 dB to corporate jets at 83 dB, is
about 24 percent. However, that figure explodes to 3900 percent on a linear
scale of pressure fluctuation. The students concluded that "it takes 62
single-engine propeller aircraft taking off simultaneously to produce the
same physical impact in sound intensity as a corporate jet."

The students also concluded that "information related to an increase in air
traffic can be misleading unless the data is broken down into percentage
increase for aircraft by type."


Four-town agreement

Richard Canale of Lexington announced that all four towns have signed the
Memorandum of Agreement to establish a four-town review board for
development projects that originate in individual towns.

The next step is to appoint people to serve on the all-voluntary
eight-member group. The goal is to have one person from each planning board
or conservation commission. The second slot can be filled by residents.

==========
**NOTICE:  In accordance with 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is
distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in
receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.**
==========