Airport neighbors dusted, fear fumes

RIAC’s Fredericks calls situation unacceptable, vows to take corrective action

Posted 9/25/14

When Janice Pangman visited the Beacon about three weeks ago she was carrying a rolled up blanket under her arm. She was distraught. She didn’t know where to turn.

More than words, the blanket …

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Airport neighbors dusted, fear fumes

RIAC’s Fredericks calls situation unacceptable, vows to take corrective action

Posted

When Janice Pangman visited the Beacon about three weeks ago she was carrying a rolled up blanket under her arm. She was distraught. She didn’t know where to turn.

More than words, the blanket told the story.

Pangman’s neighbor is T.F. Green Airport. She lives at the north end of the main runway, next to an area that was cleared of homes years ago and, in another two years, will be the new home of Winslow Park softball and soccer fields that are currently at the other end of the runway. Those fields will be taken when Main Avenue is relocated to allow an extension of the runway.

Pangman was one of the more vocal members from the Lakeside neighborhood when the Rhode Island Airport Corporation (RIAC) proposed using the land between her property and the airport as the site for corporate hangars. The neighbors and Camille Vella-Wilkinson, who was running for a first time as councilwoman, vehemently fought the plan. Vella-Wilkinson, who won the seat, carried the fight to the council floor, and to a legal challenge of the extension. That challenge was eventually dropped as the council and RIAC agreed that, among other provisions, required the relocation of the playing fields.

Now Pangman fears that young people using the fields and people in the neighborhood will be exposed to potentially dangerous fumes from aircraft taking off and landing at the longer runway.

She believes she has proof of what the fumes could do to the lungs of players and spectators. It’s the blanket.

As she is not using her upstairs, Pangman closed off the second floor, hanging the blanket to block off the stairs and conserve on air conditioning. To provide ventilation on the second floor, she opened the second floor windows a crack. She said she found, as RIAC cleared the adjoining land of trees for the fields, her house became increasingly hot and there was a higher level of aircraft fumes.

What jolted her was the condition of the blanket, she said. Where the blanket had been taped against the wall, it was yellow, but where it had been exposed to the flow of air it was a sticky gray.

When told of the blanket more than two weeks ago, RIAC’s President and CEO Kelly Fredericks suspected it had been discolored by dust stirred up during the leveling for the fields.

Conditions have gotten worse since then.

Dust problems

Dust from the work, exacerbated by dry conditions and driven by high winds, has been a severe problem.

“We’re not doing enough. We need to do more, what’s transpired to date is unacceptable,” Fredericks said in a call yesterday.

He plans to do more than watering the site with four trucks, as they are now.

“We’re looking into how to help these folks in getting cars cleaned, homes cleaned. I don’t fault these folks. [I’m] disappointed we’re not doing a better job to mitigate this situation,” he said.

Christopher Ougheltree, who lives across from Pangman on Rowe Avenue, said dust coats everything, from the windows of his home to his car.

Ougheltree said RIAC has been responsive to his suggestions and that the contractor has taken steps to minimize the dust. But, with most of the trees gone between the neighborhood and the airfield, he also noticed an increase in aircraft noise and fumes.

He’s not alone.

Monday’s high winds turned the site into a dust bowl. Neighbors have called City Hall and RIAC to complain.

Caitlin Beagan, who grew up on Wells Avenue, has never seen anything like it. She sent a dozen pictures to the paper; showing piles of loam and her car coated with a layer of orange dust.

“The wind has dramatically increased since the trees were torn down and the direction at which it blows is constantly away from the airport, into our neighborhood,” she writes in an email.

“We have AC units in the bedrooms of our home. We cannot open any other windows in the home for fresh air because of the amount of dirt that blows into the house.”

Another Wells Avenue resident, Charles Vanner, said Tuesday he not only washed his car but sprayed his home to rid it of “the muck.”

“I get sick of hearing how beautiful its going to look … it’s been a grueling summer,” he said.

Like others in the neighborhood, with removal of the trees and the buffer they offered, Vanner said he’s “absolutely” noticed an increase in the noise and the smell.

Last week, in a matter also related to airport air quality, RIAC disclosed that it will conduct a public hearing next Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Buttonwoods Community Center to outline why it sought an emergency amendment to temporarily close and relocate the air quality monitoring station on Pembroke Avenue.

While the meeting is about the monitor, Fredericks said yesterday he expects to address issues relating to the fields. He said that about a third of the site is to be sodded by early next month and the remaining areas of the site “won’t be left open” for the winter months.

The air monitoring station is within the area for the new Winslow Park fields.

“The station is presently in the process of being moved. It should be operational tomorrow. It will be temporary relocated to 230 yards south of its existing location. This site is actually closer to the runway intersection than the original location,” Peter Frazier of RIAC wrote in an email to Mayor Scott Avedisian last Wednesday.

However, relocating the station without public comment is in violation of the law, says Michael Zarum, who closely monitors airport developments. He said in an email exchange last week that he talked with representatives from the Departments of Health, Environmental Management and the Attorney General in August about the proposed relocation of the station. Now that the station has been moved, he says the Attorney General’s office “obviously has now succumbed to not enforcing an enforcement clause written by his own department, and has dishonored the public by allowing RIAC to circumvent a public process and public comment period required by law.”

Higher cancer rates

Pangman is more concerned about kids playing on fields where they will be exposed to potentially dangerous air. She points to a study of lung cancer released by the state Department of Health in October 2012.

The study looked at cancer rates for 1987-2001 provided by the Rhode Island Cancer Registry that showed cancer incidence for Warwick residents living immediately south and east of the airport were higher than the state average. The analysis considered a declining trend in smoking and an increase in air traffic and came to the conclusion that “the geographical distribution of lung cancer cases was a combination of chance variation in risk factors, tobacco use, and/or exposure to indoor and outdoor air pollutants.”

The study also questioned why Warwick has a high rate of heart disease.

“We know,” reads the report, “that environmental exposures to elevated levels of particulate matter during smog events are associated with increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. We also know that elevated levels of black carbon and ultra-fine particulates in the air are associated with airplane activity. Therefore, airport traffic might be related to the differentials observed in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, but additional study, designed specifically to test this hypothesis, would be necessary to confirm or deny the connection.”

Robert Vanderslice, PhD, co-author of the report with John Fulton, PhD, said Tuesday that he didn’t perform an evaluation of where to locate the playing fields, but he would have favored a location farther away, or protected from potential sources of pollutants.

“I’m from the health department,” he confessed. “I love buffers and distance.”

Vanderslice is intimately familiar with the air quality station, its relocation and the upcoming meeting over its eventual position.

“I’m glad there’s going to be a public meeting about this,” he said.

Vanderslice said he is looking forward to learning from the neighborhood when the station should be located.

As for the data captured by the station, he said there is a direct correlation between early morning flights when winds are calm and higher levels of particulates. Spikes in pollutants recorded by the station coincide with aircraft flights.

“That’s not the time when kids tend to be on these fields,” he observed.

Readings later in the day, when winds pick up, along with other vehicular activity, aren’t as conclusively tied to air traffic. Overall, Vanderslice said, “I don’t see clear violations of ambient air standards … they’re all within the guidelines.”

Vanderslice agreed that having the station close to the playing fields would be good for monitoring the safety of children.

“My goal is that the public comes [to Tuesday’s meeting] and people aren’t afraid to speak up,” he said.

Asked about increased levels of noise and fumes, Fredericks said, “We’re revisiting that. We have got to have some sort of buffer … everything is on the table.”

If there were apparent increases in noise and fumes, would RIAC conduct another study that could alter noise contours and the eligibility of abutting property owners to be a part of the voluntary property acquisition program?

“I see us doing some additional modeling and testing,” Fredericks said. “[We] have a responsibility to address that. In light of changing conditions, everything is in play there.”

Comments

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  • dickcoutu

    September 25, 2014

    I live 40 feet directly across the street from the outfield of field 5, the smallest of the six fields. I remember some 25 or 30 years ago when Winslow Park was re-located from Apponaug the president of the league, I think the last name was Carlson or something like that, asked me if it would be OK if we construct an instructional field (Field 5) across the street from the front of your house? The left and right field lines would only be 90 feet long. I simply said NO! The field was erected anyway with no regard to its neighbors.

    Ever since then, "dust bowl" city. I can't remember when the last time I opened my front windows of my living room and upstairs bedroom.

    Remember, these softball fields have dirt infields except for the outfields. Occasionally someone will turn on the underground sprinklers but more seldom than often.

    Just a reminder to those neighbors especially on Saturday and Sunday mornings when the Apponaug Girls Softball League is in full swing especially during tournament time. All six fields are dragged (or groomed) so as to prepare the infields for play.

    You haven't seen dust until you see their golf cart with this crazy attachment which looks like a large hair comb go round and round the infields. They (AGS volunteers) don't care... It's not their home.

    They'll laugh at you. Believe me it's happened to me over the course of 25 to 30 years.

    I'm living proof! Enough said. I hope you have better luck with them than I did. I have put up with a lot of aggravation such as this and the loss of quiet weekends. During tournament time you'll get somewhere around 40 to 45 (more or less) teams showing up around 6:15 AM and soon right after the sound of that shrieking noise... batted balls called batting practice. Again, these people don't care! There are no rules in force regarding practice prior to games.

    Footnote: My family will be re-locating soon since the airport has purchased our home under mandatory acquisition to make way for airport expansion.

    Best of luck to those neighbors residing in the Lake Shore Drive, Cedar Swamp Road, Rowe and Wells Avenues area.

    Just like the airport expansion neither project should never happen.

    Thursday, September 25, 2014 Report this

  • Jennifermann

    We should have conducted a study years ago (like the one finally completed in MA) on the health impacts of the airport to those living in Warwick and neighboring cities. It is negligent to ignore and not be continually analyzing (retrospectively and prospectively) the public health impact of an airport located in the middle of a urban/suburban area (not to mention the noise/quality of life in our classrooms/homes and the environmental concerns).

    http://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/2014/05/28/childhood-asthma-and-chronic-lung-disease-elevated-near-logan-airport-state-study-finds/mEnCTG9Ywx3CauOWG9NoqN/story.html

    http://www.massport.com/about-massport/logan-airport-health-study/

    Thursday, September 25, 2014 Report this

  • Reality

    Good job by Vella=Wilkinson getting the ball fields relocated. The hell with the safety of our children. Councilwoman Vella-Wilkinson aka the progressive Democrat has to go.

    Thursday, September 25, 2014 Report this

  • falina

    Wow, that is just awful! Feel so sorry for the neighborhood residents! It sounds like something out of Erin Brockovich.

    Thursday, September 25, 2014 Report this

  • RichardLangseth

    Falina:

    Wait till you see the cancer data being collected by the monitor. The claim is that the worst of it is in the early morning when the air is still. But what about the rest of it? You don't have to smoke five cigarettes at once to catch cancer!

    RIAC posted the position of the monitor 200 feet from the tot park on its web site this past summer. The DEM documents confirm that location. Now they want to pull it to some far off location. We all need to say put it where you originally planned it and told the DEM you would locate it. That's in the construction contract. To do anything else will trigger a change order and more expense. Why would RIAC want to spend yet more money to move the monitor away from the kids????

    Friday, September 26, 2014 Report this

  • RoyDempsey

    The residents of Warwick should take a drive through these neighborhoods to see what these people are going through. Go through Lake Shore Drive, go through the once beautiful neighborhood off Main Avenue. The noise, fumes, deterioration, it is just deplorable, See for yourself what has happened to these areas. For what??? Economic Development??? Post Road around the airport is a mess - empty weed filled lots, closed businesses, and a deteriorating road. Where is the Mayor? Where is the Council?

    Friday, September 26, 2014 Report this

  • Reality

    Vella-Wilkinson is responsible for airport expansion and new location of ball fields. This progressive councilwoman has to go. Hope the voters in Ward 3 show her the door.

    Saturday, September 27, 2014 Report this