Nantucket Memorial Airport Needs To Do Right By Its Neighbors

To the editor: The town hall meeting this past Monday was a good example of how a community galvanizes itself and advocates for meaningful change. I support and respect the wishes of the community and rightfully assume the airport is not going to build a PFAS berm.

What I am concerned about is the additional noise that will be created by a four-acre parking lot of class 3 jets. Those jets, as you know, will be parked in close proximity to the homes of the very community that made the impassioned arguments against the PFAS berm.

I assume the reason the airport offered to construct a berm was to attenuate
the noise, the light, the odors, and the emissions that are about to be visited
upon the neighbors. The existing trees will not sufficiently do the job. This article discusses the risks of unchecked airport noise.

The airport will argue the average yearly noise levels are under federally acceptable levels, but the majority of that noise is being created during the summer months when all the class 3 jets show up.

If the airport commission determines they don’t have the funds for a commercially made sound barrier then, perhaps, we can examine a “homemade” solution like a simple cinder block wall! As unsightly as a cinder block wall would be, it would reside behind all the trees that would have been removed to create the berm, it would not be visible from the street, none of the neighbors could see it, and it is PFAS-free.

A solution that does not include a fixed sound barrier is unacceptable.

Sincerely,

Douglas Kepple