By: Dan Woomer
Yesterday, May 21st, the Maryland Aviation Administration (MAA) held two virtual public workshops to present the current Airport Layout Plan (ALP) which is part of an Updated Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) and Draft Section 4(f) Determination. I attended both presentations.
The major take-a-ways for the Linthicum-Shipley community from the teleconference are:
(1) Removal of over 2,000 Trees - over 1,000 trees on MAA property and over 1,000 trees on privately held properties - north of the airport.
(2) 83 acres on BWI property to be clear cut.
(3) Building of a new maintenance facility resulting in an Increase in number of aircraft being maintained and serviced at BWI, which means more engine run up occurrences.
(4) No sound diffusion or sound barriers proposed in the planned maintenance facility engine run up area.
(5) More noise pollution from the airport penetrating into Linthicum-Shipley and our neighboring communities.
The tree removal falls into two categories:
(1) Trees being removed or topped mandated by Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) requirements to maintain an unobstructed flight path into and out of the airport.
(2) Trees being removed to clear the land for planned structures, such as the new aircraft maintenance facility.
Here’s why the designation of these two categories is important:
(1) Trees removed by MAA to build the new structures at the airport are required to be replaced. This can be accomplished by direct replanting (reforestation) in and around our community, or a as “credit” where trees are planted elsewhere, stripping our community of more trees and greenspaces with no remediation in and around our community.
(2) Trees removed as part of the FAA flight path safety do NOT have to be replaced.
Bottomline, we lose our old trees and get little to nothing in return from MAA.
The two questions I asked at the morning session where:
(Q1) With the new maintenance facility, and the increasing number of aircraft maintained, is there consideration of, or does the current planning include a sound deflection structure to reduce the engine run-up noise disturbing the local communities?
The answer: No. No sound diffusion or sound barriers are planned.
(Q2) Current run-up noise level, especially early in the morning, is already having a disturbing impact on the neighboring communities. With more aircraft coming, the number of noise impact events will only increase. And, the answer we just received was "It shouldn't be a problem?" It already is a problem. Why not sound barriers or sound deflectors at the engine-run up area(s)?
The answer: The new maintenance facility will be located behind Northrop Grumman which should offer additional sound diffusion, as well as the topography of the area should help.
My thoughts - While the Northrop Grumman buildings should offer some additional sound diffusion, I don’t see how the area topography will be all that helpful.
I asked the following question at the evening session:
(Q1) The current planning includes the removal of over 2,000 trees in and around the Linthicum community. And, you stated there should be no significant increase in the noise pollution in our community. With the removal of a significant amount of existing sound buffering trees, coupled with the planned increase in aircraft arriving, departing and being maintained at BWI, including an increasing number of engine test run-up which is already disruptive to our community, please explain how the noise pollution in our community will not intensify? And, with the removal of all of these trees and the clear cutting of 83 acres, how will the increase in rain/storm water runoff be mitigated, given the significant increase already experienced from all the land development all along West Nursery Road? Do the current plans include reforestation? If so, where in Linthicum will trees be replanted?
The answers:
(1) Readings, modeling and analysis of airport noise in the Linthicum area is under the 65 DNL, which the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) does not require additional intervention. MAA analysis doesn’t find the removal of these trees will have a significant impact on airport noise penetration or amplitude in Linthicum-Shipley.
My thoughts - I don’t see how the removal of a significant amount of the natural sound barrier (trees) will not result in an increase in the airport noise pollution to which our community is subjected. Having the new maintenance facility located behind Northrop Grumman should help in the engine test run-up noise diffusion, but taking out over 2,000 trees will have not aid in the mitigation of the increased noise our community is and will be subjected to.
(2) With the removal of the trees, rain and storm water run-off will be controlled by State and other required and recommend strategies, including collection ponds and restructured drainage to include water cleaning techniques.
My thoughts - The answers were vague and did not layout MAA planning on specifically how the increase rain and storm water run-off and potential silting of local streams will be addressed. The loss of forested land along the west border of our community is already dumping additional amounts of rain and storm water into the west border stream. This increase in run off water from hard structured surfaces bring with it an increase in pollutants being dumped into the remaining border greenspace and the existing streams.
(3) MAA will comply with the reforestation requirements through plantings and credits.
My thoughts - As noted before, the use of “credits” translates to the planting of “replacement” trees virtually anywhere in Maryland - not replacing the loss in our community of these old trees.
Also, in the discussion on this part of the question by the panelists, it was noted during this evening session, the trees being removed as part of the FAA requirements for aircraft safety, do NOT have to be replaced. The only trees required to be replaced are those being removed for building the new structures on the airport property. What does that translate to? Of the 83 acres of planned clear cutting, less than 40 acres require some reforestation mitigation. Of the over 1,000 trees removed north of the airport, NONE require reforestation. With the current MAA planning, our community will likely loose thousands of old trees and we will have only a small percentage of them replaced, if any at all.
The attached images are selected pages from the workshop presentation, which include an aerial image of “Off-Airport Tree Obstructions.” Note: Every green dot is a tree to be removed. And, a copy of the page summarizing the “Environmental Impacts.” Note: the sub-title of the chart “No Significant Impacts (With Mitigation).” 83. Acres of forest clearing, 1,102 individual trees removed from off Airport, 1,228 trees removed on Airport, 0.57 acres of wetland impacts, 1.99 acres of wetland buffer impacts. 0.33 of floodplain impacts, 1,003 linear feet of stream impact (not counting the downstream impacts). But according the MAA, this is not significant. And if you don’t live in Linthicum or one of our neighboring communities, it is not significant to you.
My thoughts - This is significant to me, my neighbors, and my community. We are forced to live with the results, impacts, and consequences.
Here’s what you can do:
The planning is open to comment and questions till COB June 4, 2020.
Send your comments and questions, which are required to be included and addressed by MAA in the final Environmental Assessment before it is sent off for evaluation by the required State and Federal government agencies.
To add your question(s) and comment(s) on the BWI ALP EA:
(1) E-mail rbowie@bwiairport.com, or
(2) Write up and send (mail) to:
Ms. Robin M. Bowie
Director, Office of Environmental Services
Maryland Department of Transportation
Maryland Aviation Administration
P.O. Box 8766
BWI Airport, MD 21240
Important: For your comment(s) and/or question(s) to be included and addressed in the EA, your mail must be postmarked on or before June 4, 2020, and your email must be sent prior to COB June 4, 2020.
To view additional information and presentation materials, go to the MAA website at: http://www.marylandaviation.com/content/environmental/environmentaldocs.html. Included on this website, are links to the Updated Draft EA and Draft Section 4(f) Determination, as well as aerial photos of areas to the clear cut and planned significant tree removal.
