Battle over Navy jet noise on Whidbey Island pits neighbor against neighbor

Imagine the Blue Angels flying over your house all day and night.

That’s what it’s like for hundreds of home and business owners on Whidbey Island, who’ve stepped up their fight against Navy flight operations they argue have become noisier and more frequent, and are even making them sick.

“You can’t even imagine what it’s like. It’s like living in a war zone,” said Ken Pickard, a longtime Coupeville resident and member of the group Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve for a Healthy, Safe & Peaceful Environment.

Pickard filed a motion in U.S. District Court in Seattle this week seeking a preliminary injunction to block Naval Air Station Whidbey Island from using an airstrip near Coupeville for flight operations.

The touch-and-go training flights by EA-18G Growlers take place regularly at the Outlying Landing Field (OLF), sending the fighter jets screaming over hundreds of rooftops, little league fields and farms near the Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve.

Pickard and his group have been fighting the flight operations for years. He says the Growlers jets &#8212 which are essentially the same type of plane that the Blue Angels fly &#8212 are far noisier than their predecessors, the Prowlers.

And he argues several experts have documented that the flights are making people sick.

“They’re suffering hypertension, increased blood pressure, cardiac events such as arrhythmias, increased diabetes, gastrointestinal problems, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, hearing loss, tinnitus,” he said.

Residents and independent experts have regularly measured noise readings of nearly 100 decibels, far more than levels that could cause permanent hearing damage.

“It just sounds like they’re literally coming through the house,” said Cecilia Askins, who with her husband and two young children bought their Coupeville home near the field last year. “The whole approach and back again is just so loud and it’s one after another,” she said in a video documenting her complaints.

The Askins are among a number of residents who’ve filed affidavits in the federal motion. They detail jets flying so close she can see the pilots faces as they scream just above her home, terrorizing her two young children, causing a variety of health problems and making it impossible to live.

So why would someone buy a house near a Navy base where they’ve flown jets for decades? The Askins insist when they bought their house a disclosure made no mention of the Growler flights, but merely referenced the nearby airfield.

“We just never expected it to be this bad,” said Dan Askins. “We never expected anyone to really put their citizens or homeowners in harm’s way when it’s 90 or 100 decibels, the sound of a freight train rolling through the house at 1 o’clock in the morning.”

The motion argues the Growlers violate federal noise regulations, and the Navy should have undergone a full environmental impact statement before the Growlers began operations in 2008, replacing the outdated EA-6B Prowlers stationed at the base for decades prior.

But the Navy insists the Growlers are not tangibly noisier than the Prowlers they replaced.

Environmental Public Affairs Officer Ted Brown says an environmental analysis determined the difference was negligible

“That EA does acknowledge that the Growler is one decibel louder during arrival than the Prowler and about two to eight decibels quieter in other flight profiles,” Brown said. “And generally…a change in less than three decibels is not perceptible.”

And Brown says the Navy used the OLF far more frequently when the Prowlers were in service.

But regardless, Brown said, the training is critical and must continue at the field designed to simulate the experience of landing on an aircraft carrier.

“The Navy cannot stop training its pilots. Landing on an aircraft carrier is a very perishable skill and any delay or halt in field carrier landing practice would adversely affect pilot training,” Brown said.

The dispute has pitted neighbor against neighbor in the Navy town. Pickard says he and others often gets threats for speaking out. But he says the Navy shouldn’t be allowed to destroy an entire neighborhood and its residents, forcing kids playing little league to stop and plug their ears as the jets go by, scaring animals and babies, and driving people from their homes.

“It is so scary and loud. You have to put on hearing protection,” Pickard said. “You can’t do anything…your guts are shaking, your windows are flexing.”

But Navy supporters criticize those who complain, saying they knew full well about flight operations they call the “sound of freedom.”

“As a Whidbey Island resident and a former military brat, I appreciate the need for the training the Navy does as at OLF Coupeville,” said Chris Cook in response to the complaints. “Maybe if they want a quiet place to live they should move somewhere else that is not protected by our armed forces. Where exactly do they expect these Navy pilots to practice? How selfish!”