Long Time Boulder County Resident Driven Out of Her Home by Flight Training

August 28, 2020

Over the years a number of Oregon's Washington County and Hillsboro residents have chosen to relocate in hopes of finding respite from the incessant air traffic noise and toxic emissions generated by the Hillsboro Airport and other aviation facilities in the area.

This situation is largely due to federal, state and local government policies intentionally designed to exploit and degrade entire communities on behalf of the one-quarter of one percent of the population certified to fly in the U.S. Many of these pilots circle and loop repetitively over homes and neighborhoods for an hour or more before returning to the same training airport from which they departed. General aviation airports, including flight training schools, recreational pilots, and corporate jet owners, are prime examples of how a privileged few have appropriated community resources for their personal use with no regard whatsoever for impacted residents.

Sadly, other U.S. communities, without the consent of the governed, are experiencing similar attacks on their quality of life.

The following guest column by Dr. Anne Wilson appeared in two Colorado newspapers: The Longmont Times-Call on 6/24/2020 and The Boulder Daily Camera on 6/20/2020. The author, who recently retired from her position as a computer scientist for the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, had intended to remain in her home of 23 years, but now, due to unrelenting air traffic noise and pollution, feels compelled to move.

The following article appears here with permission from the author.

*******************************

Guest opinion: Anne Wilson: Boulder County's airspace overused

"Boulder County ... some of the most diverse, natural landscapes and sustainable development along the Northern Front Range. A remarkable place to live, work and play." So says bouldercounty.org.

As a long time Boulder County resident, I have recently learned that Boulder County is also something else completely antithetical to these values. According to "Understanding the Airport - ArcGIS StoryMaps," produced by the City of Louisville and the Town of Superior, Boulder County is the flight training area for Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (RMMA).

It says: "Pilots conducting flight training maneuvers often choose to do so in uncontrolled airspace over less populated areas as can be found in northern Boulder and Larimer counties. Many of the aircraft departing RMMA fly to the north, where there is a flight training area north of the airport. The presence of other airports (Boulder, Longmont, Erie, Vance Brand, Northern Colorado, Greeley-Weld) in the area also provides pilots the opportunity to practice takeoffs and landings under different conditions."

Next to this, a map depicts a shaded training area encompassing most of Boulder County plains region. My Heatherwood home, which I purchased in 1997, is in it.

Those of us living in the county are already acutely aware of the huge increase in piston-engine aircraft activity over our homes. My environment is now a constant, daily din of humming, cranking, churning combustion engines. The Boulder County plains region regularly sees 25 to 50 planes in the sky at one time, within roughly 240 square miles.

Planes fly over and near Heatherwood all day, every day. Frequently, there are several planes within a half mile of my home. Very few are transiting. The majority of flight tracks indicate training or recreational exercises - out-and-back tracks that include loops, doodles, and doughnuts. The only thing limiting this activity is weather.

Across the four nearest airports, (Boulder Municipal, Vance Brand, Erie, and RMMA) there are now about 21 flight schools operating. Two are for helicopter training. (Have you noticed the increased helicopter activity? I certainly have.)

These small planes use avgas, which contains more lead than automotive gasoline did before being outlawed in 1996. Probably most of the lead from these flights is emitted.

The Environmental Protection Agency says: "Because of its persistence in the environment, lead deposited from the air may contribute to human and ecological exposures for years into the future." Think about this the next time you see touch-and-go activity, which is common in training.

At Boulder Municipal, touch-and-go activity occurs frequently. Besides many residences, this activity emits lead directly over three primary schools, a church, two farms, Pleasantview soccer fields, Walden and Sawhill open spaces, and Boulder Creek.

There is no recourse for those impacted by this activity. Archaic, unresponsive noise complaint procedures deter complaints. There is no enforcement. Calling this system a "noise abatement procedure" is simply indefensible.

There are currently no limiting factors to the number of planes training and recreating in our sky. It seems the only thing that can interrupt this trend is a crisis.

Now I get it. Boulder County airspace is actually a free and valuable business asset for the aviation community and associated municipalities. These interests market Boulder County as a desirable flight training area. Our taxes and our efforts at preserving what we love about Boulder County created this asset for them, at least until they destroy it completely. We pay for it, they benefit, we suffer the lasting consequences.

The management of our skies is completely broken. It is not Boulder's responsibility to train the next generation of pilots. There are much better locations for this heavy industry. It desperately needs regulation, but our county and city leaders are unable or unwilling to defend us.

(One very exciting but likely unattainable solution is presented here: Capitalism, the Commons, and Divine Right.)

Me, I'm looking for a new home. This is extremely sad and certainly not what I imagined these 23 years as I worked to make my home my refuge. But the brutal reality that I have come to accept is that Heatherwood is now part of an aviation park.

I am unwilling to live and pay taxes in this environment. Thanks to Louisville and Superior for making this situation utterly clear to me.

Dr. Anne Wilson is a member of the Ronin Institute for Independent Scholarship. She recently retired as a computer scientist for the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics.