Town to need more cash for jet noise fight

While other South Shore communities have resigned themselves to the prospect of more airplane noise overhead, Marshfield is waging an expensive and difficult battle to limit air traffic over the southern part of town.

The Federal Aviation Administration approved a plan last fall to route more of the Logan International Airport traffic over the south section of Marshfield. In December, the town filed a lawsuit aimed at revising that plan.

To date, the town has spent about $85,000 on noise specialists and attorneys to bolster its legal argument. Voters at Marshfield's April 28 Special Town Meeting will decide whether to invest an additional $50,000.

The town's attorney, Robert Marzelli, said he expects more money will be needed in the future, as the case evolves. It is being handled for the town by Washington attorney Andrea Ferster.

At issue is a set of alternative flight paths to and from Logan Airport that were proposed by a regional panel called the Logan Airport Community Advisory Committee. That committee, comprising 29 representatives from towns circling Boston, was established several years ago as part of a judge's decision to allow Logan to add another runway.

The committee was charged with putting together alternative flight paths that would help quiet the skies over area towns, particularly those directly bordering the airport.

The paths suggested for south of the airport would keep planes over Massachusetts Bay when they are at low altitudes, and loudest. The planes would not be allowed to cross the shoreline and fly over land until they were higher.

After reviewing a list of alternatives forwarded by the advisory committee, the Federal Aviation Administration ruled last fall that a set of Phase I alternatives could go forward without undergoing further environmental review. Some, in fact, have already been implemented. Others are expected in 12 to 18 months, according to FAA spokesman Jim Peters.

The Phase 1 plan - which won other communities' approval but not Marshfield's - generates more aircraft noise in south Marshfield than the town is willing to accept.

Ferster, on behalf of the town, maintains that the Phase 1 paths should undergo extensive review before being allowed.

A town-funded study has found that the noise level over Marshfield is significant - louder than the Logan Airport Community Advisory Committee calculated.

The town has already suffered one setback in the case. This month, a panel of federal judges refused to order a temporary halt to the new flight paths, already underway, to allow time for the town's case to be settled. The judges' panel said the town failed to demonstrate that implementing the flight paths would cause "irreparable harm."

Ferster said the judges' denial will have no bearing on the ultimate outcome of the case. She could not predict when it will be settled.

Marshfield Selectman Michael Maresco said town leaders "want to make sure we do everything possible to protect our residents."

Said Maresco: "The article at Town Meeting will be an indicator of how the town feels."

FAA spokesman Peters maintains that the controversial flight plan would benefit most of Marshfield. "Overall changes are predicted to provide a better distribution of aircraft over the entire Marshfield community," he said in an e-mail. According to Peters, all points modeled during a study in Marshfield showed there would be a decrease in noise, except for one in south Marshfield.

Logan Airport Community Advisory Committee president Sandra Kunz, Braintree's representative, said planes will be at least 6,000 feet above the ground when they pass the shoreline.

"What we tried to do in Phase I is have the planes go farther east over Minot Light, so when they come back to land they are higher," Kunz said.

"I'm sorry Marshfield doesn't feel we've been just with them," Kunz said. "And they have every right to protect their community. We just feel they should have come earlier."

By the time Marshfield representatives attended the advisory committee meetings early last year, the votes on the alternative flight paths were largely finalized. Marshfield representative Marianne McCabe has said she believes the town was purposely left out of the process, and she has accused representatives of other towns of shifting planes away from their own communities and over Marshfield. McCabe did not return calls for this article.

Maresco said town officials have received relatively few complaints on aircraft noise so far. "That's not to say we haven't had people call, but not as many as a 40B, cable television, or the transfer station cause," he said.

In neighboring Duxbury, where flight path changes will also add more air traffic, Selectman Andre Martecchini said officials decided not to fight the FAA's planned changes.

"To pursue those kinds of lawsuits takes a lot of money," Martecchini said. "And in our evaluation, we didn't think we had much chance of winning. It's a tough proposition to fight the federal government, and I think Marshfield is finding that out."

Christine Legere can be reached at christinelegere@yahoo.com.