Keaukaha seeks relief from airport noise

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — Hans Mortensen is glad to be back in the home he grew up in on Hawaiian homelands in Keaukaha. His roots are there and he is proud of his community, but he is worried about the noise.

The Mortensen family stands outside the chain-link fence that separates Hilo airport from their Keaukaha neighborhood. "You shouldn't have to carry earplugs in your pockets," Hans Mortensen says. Kevin Dayton • The Honolulu Advertiser

Mortensen, 33, grew up with that noise and never used to think much about it. But that has changed.

He remembers watching 2-year-old daughter Mihalani play in the front yard recently. As a jet raced down the runway, the little girl stopped her game and clapped her hands over her ears, waiting for the shrill roar to stop.

"I look at that and I'm happy that she knows to do that, but at the same time I'm thinking, 'That's not right,' " Mortensen said. "You shouldn't have to carry earplugs in your pocket, in your children's pockets, to put it in their ears every time an aircraft flies by."

Family members automatically pause in mid-conversation to allow the jets to pass. Mortensen's wife, LaRae, often has to interrupt the piano lessons she gives at home because she cannot hear the notes when her fingers strike the keys.

LaRae Mortensen recalls one occasion when family members from O'ahu were visiting and chatting with her as a jet approached.

It's been 28 years since the airport was expanded and improved to accommodate jets, and Keaukaha Community Association President Patrick Kahawaiolaa said in that time, the state has done almost nothing to provide residents with relief from the noise.

Now residents are demanding action, and the state acknowledges there is a problem. But finding a solution that is acceptable to the residents has not been easy.

The Keaukaha homesteads have a long history of conflict with the airport. The subdivision was created in 1924, with about 240 lots distributed to homesteaders by 1929. Construction on the modest forerunner of today's Hilo airport began in 1925, with the facility dedicated in 1928.

The territory and state repeatedly grabbed control of additional Hawaiian homelands over the years to expand the airport, wiping out almost 300 homestead lots and forcing the relocation of families as the airport grew to its present 1,247 acres with two runways.

The Mortensens believe complaints about aircraft noise at Hilo airport have been muted because the homesteaders worry the state might solve the noise problem by forcing them out.

In 2001, state officials proposed building a 15-foot wall between the community and the runway to buffer the noise, but that plan was rejected by Keaukaha residents who said the barrier would block the breeze and change the character of the community. Critics also said a wall would block an evacuation route in the event of a tsunami.

The possibility of relocating residents also was rejected, prompting airport officials to turn to providing air conditioning and sound insulation to individual homes.

Kahawaiolaa said the community has been waiting two years for the next step.

Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the department expects to complete a $1.51 million project in June to install air conditioning and sound protection at Keaukaha Elementary School.

The Federal Aviation Administration is providing $340,000 for a noise-monitoring project at the airport, and $600,000 for a pilot project to provide air conditioning and insulation for homes most affected by the noise, Ishikawa said.

Kahawaiolaa said one change that has helped was Hawaiian Airlines' modernization of its interisland fleet in 2001, when the airline switched to quieter Boeing 717-200 jets. He said it would be "of great benefit to this community" if Aloha Airlines also switched.

U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawai'i, obtained exemptions from federal rules to allow the interisland airlines to use engines here that are noisier than those required at Mainland airports. Hawaiian's jets are in compliance with the federal rules, but Aloha continues to use the noisier planes.

Aloha spokesman Stu Glauberman said the airline is "reviewing plans to replace its interisland aircraft," but declined to elaborate.

Mortensen, who lives about 300 yards from the runway, said insulating his home and new, quieter engines for Aloha's planes would help, but won't fix the problem. He wants the state to begin planning to move the airport away from the homesteads.

He argues airport noise is affecting other neighborhoods as well — jets rattle windows downtown as they pass over Hilo Bay — and in the long run relocating the airport is the best solution for the community as a whole.

"Keaukaha is the one that's making the noise right now about this thing, but in the future, Hilo town will have problems with it," said Mortensen, who works at the airport as a line serviceman for Hawaiian Airlines.

He and other residents contend the airport should move and the homesteads should stay because they were there first.

The DOT's Ishikawa said there are no plans to move the airport. But the department has not identified what other long-term strategies it might pursue to solve the problem.

In the meantime, Mortensen can tell you which jet is leaving or arriving in Hilo without turning his head to look out the window; he knows the planes by their sound.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.

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Correction: A previous version of the graphic incorrectly described what was being measured and used wrong numbers.