Living near an airport can be noisy, but the majority of complaints about noise emanating from Denver International Airport come from one person who lives in Strasburg — 30 miles away from the runways.
That man was responsible for 76 percent of all complaints between Jan. 1 and Sept. 30 this year, with a staggering total of 3,349, according to a DIA noise report.
“This complainant increased their complaints by about 24 percent as compared to the same period in 2015,” according to the report.
In 2015, that Strasburg man complained 3,555 times, “an average of 9.7 times per day,” according to a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.
Christina Hart, the Bennett court clerk who lives in Strasburg, said she never notices aircraft noise from DIA. “The only time I ever hear aircraft is when local residents have a plane, a small plane or crop duster.”
She had no idea who was responsible for the frenzy of phone calls from her town.
DIA officials take noise complaints seriously, and follow-up on those they receive, said Heath Montgomery, airport spokesman. “I’m not saying if someone calls 4,000 times we are going to follow-up every time, but we take these complaints very seriously. This airport has worked tremendously hard for two decades to contain and mitigate noise,” he said.
Airport personnel have spoken with the man, in the past, but not for a number of years, said Mike McKee, DIA noise abatement manager. “This individual generally just submits information via the WebTrak public web portal, which generates an email complaint,” McKee said via email.
“We do respond to all complaints that request a response and we take all complaints seriously,” McKee added.
Other large airports throughout the country also hear complaints from residents who live far from their runways.
“Airport noise complaint data paints a startling picture,” the Mercatus study said. “A handful of individuals are responsible for most of the noise complaints at most airports we examine. Some of these individuals do not appear to live particularly close to the airports to which they are complaining.”
One individual in La Selva Beach, Calif., about 55 miles from San Francisco International Airport, complained about airport noise 186 times during October 2015, the study said.
“There are worrisome signs that this small, frustrated minority of citizens is affecting aviation policy,” the study said.
