Battle crosses state lines

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Virginia
NEWS OBSERVER
Battle crosses state lines
Washington County airfield would help Virginia Beach's noise problem
By Jay Price
Monday, March 15, 2004 11:48AM EST

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA. -- A visit to Virginia's most populous city, with
its frequent blasts of jet noise as loud as rock concerts, makes it
clear why the Navy wants to build a landing field in Washington and
Beaufort counties.

The 90,000 people who live in the hourglass-shaped noise zone
surrounding Oceana Naval Air Station and Fentress practice field in
neighboring Chesapeake are used to having conversations drowned out and
wearing earplugs for sleeping. They don't even consider backyard
cookouts when the jets are flying.

This noise, day and night, has placed Virginia Beach at the center of a
three-way civic balancing act.

The Navy wants to discourage development so that a rising tide of
complaints doesn't force the Pentagon to close Oceana, but it has no
authority over land use.

City leaders say that they want to ensure that Oceana -- their largest
economic engine -- survives, but that they also need growth to keep the
tax base vigorous. Thousands of opponents, meanwhile, are fighting to
keep their lives tolerable in the wake of the arrival of noisy F/A-18
Hornets in 1998 and a wave of louder Super Hornets on the way.

"It is a very, very delicate situation," said Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf.
"The stakes are high not just for Virginia Beach, but also taxpayers of
the entire country, because Oceana is an important investment."

Now North Carolina is about to help Virginia Beach keep its balance: The
Navy is bringing the new F/A-18 Super Hornet, which can be several times
louder than the existing jets, to Oceana, but it plans to move some
landing practice from Fentress field in nearby Chesapeake. The new North
Carolina landing field about 135 miles east of Raleigh would be on the
edge of an isolated wildlife refuge that's home each fall to more than
100,000 snow geese and tundra swans.

This article can be viewed at:
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/3420324p-3040670c.html

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