Boise not selected for F-35 jet mission, final Air Force report confirms
Boise is not a preferred alternative location for a mission of F-35A jets, according to the final environmental impact statement released by the U.S. Air Force this month.
Instead, the report recommended that the F-35 sites go to Dane County Regional Airport in Madison, Wisconsin, and the Montgomery Regional Airport in Montgomery, Alabama. Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan and Jacksonville International Airport in Jacksonville, Florida, were also considered.
The military had picked the airports in Wisconsin and Alabama as its preferred sites in 2017 but studied all five sites to see how the areas would be affected.
The draft environmental impact statement, which came out in August, found that bringing the jets to Gowen Field would cause “significant” noise to the area around the Boise Airport, which could make hundreds of homes in the area unlivable.
The statement said 272 households with about 665 people would regularly be subjected to noise as loud as a vacuum cleaner 3 feet away. Those people live on 446 acres stretching from Victory Road to South Federal Way and from West Overland Road to land south of the Boise Airport, which adjoins Gowen. Most of the households are between South Orchard and South Owyhee streets.
Owyhee-Harbor Elementary School, located on Pasadena Drive, was named as one place within that area where sound would be near 65 decibels at an average point — vacuum-cleaner volume. The noise would be even louder on the 74 acres closest to the airport, which has 83 households totaling about 199 people.
In September, more than 120 people showed up to a comment session on the draft environmental impact statement, speaking almost exclusively against having an F-35 mission at Gowen.
“Boise is no place for the F-35s, and Boise is no place for urban war,” Boise resident Katie Fite told officials at that time.
An F-35A mission in Boise would have no significant effect on air quality or safety, the draft environmental impact statement said. Stationing the jets here could bring up to 85 military personnel, but it would have no significant socioeconomic impact on the area, the statement said.
Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said in a news release that the final report “affirms my positions that they are not right for our city at this time.”
“I am fully supportive of and deeply grateful for the important work the members of the United States military do every day to serve and protect our country,” she said. “However, I remain firm in my commitment to not invest tax dollars in pushing for a new mission at Gowen Field that may have a negative environmental impact on our residents.”
She noted that there is an active A-10 mission for the Idaho Air National Guard at Gowen Field, and with recent wing replacements on the A-10 aircraft, “reports indicate that the current mission is expected to continue through 2030.”
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 4:52 PM.
.jpg)