Pax River accident boundaries static

Focus now shifts to noise levels

Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

The end result is that no county changes in county zoning are necessary around the base's fence.

New noise contour boundaries are proposed. The impact of those may be changes to the county building code to provide for more sound insulation, said Derick Berlage, director of the St. Mary's County Department of Land Use and Growth Management. "Now we're focusing on noise" instead of possible accidents, said Commissioner Daniel H. Raley (D). But the accident potential zone boundaries over St. Mary's County have not changed since their origins in a 1979 study. There were slight changes over the base's federal property, which St. Mary's County has no jurisdiction over.

St. Mary's first established the Air Installation Compatible Use Zone in 1974 in an attempt to keep dense development out from underneath the base's airspace.

Much high-density activity in the Lexington Park area was moved out of the AICUZ in the past decade, such as the Lexington Manor neighborhood, Banneker Elementary School and the Lexington Park library.

In 1979, there were 159,000 flight operations a year with 16 different kinds of aircraft no longer flying at Pax River, said Capt. Andrew Macyko, base commanding officer. In 2009, there are 91,000 flight operations, but with 11 new aircraft, not counting the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which should be arriving shortly. Flight operations are conducted from 7 a.m., to 11 p.m. on weekdays and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. on weekends, he said.

Noise boundary contours around the base take on a compass rose shape with four separate points. The contours start at 60 decibels, which is the volume of a normal conversation. Two of the outermost contours extend out over the Chesapeake Bay. One extends up the Patuxent River into the mouth of Cuckold Creek in Hollywood and the other points just past the intersection of Great Mills Road and Route 5. The noise contours get louder as they come closer to Pax River's runways. The sound of a nearby grass mower is 107 decibels. "It's clear we do see increases in all the noise zones," Macyko said. As for the accident potential zones, which haven't changed, Macyko said, "Most aircraft mishaps occur on or near the runway." The clear zones extend 3,000 feet beyond the end of the runways.

Local land use needs to be compatible with the Navy's mission or else those missions go away, Raley said.

Commissioner Larry Jarboe (R) said, "If we didn't have the Navy, we'd go from a one-horse town to a one-hearse town and we don't need to go there."

Macyko said there are fewer than 100 noise complaints made to the base each year. The flights are tracked to determine where it was and what kind of aircraft it was causing the complaint. Sometimes the aircraft aren't even flying out of Patuxent River, he said.

jbabcock@somdnews.com