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Saturday, Jan. 9, 1999

Noise from air boats angers some

Others say workers are quieter than Navy planes

By GUY H. LAWRENCE
Staff Writer

   Some Flour Bluff residents along the Laguna Madre are irritated by the noise that seismic survey workers in air boats are bringing to their area.
   Others say the surveys are no louder than the aircraft passing overhead from Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.
   Crews for Western Geophysical, owned by the Houston-based Baker Hughes Inc., an oil field service company, began work in the Laguna Madre in early December to drill holes for surveys that will involve detonating dynamite to record seismic waves in the hopes of finding oil deposits.
   The work is expected to last through March for the upper Laguna Madre area from the JFK Causeway to the Padre Island National Seashore, a company official said.
   The company is using air boats at the request of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife to lessen damage to sea grass.
   Linda May, whose home looks over the Laguna Madre, said the air boats emit a low rumble that she said shook a vase off a speaker in her home.
   "They actually vibrate our houses," said May, a coordinator for the Marine Mammal Stranding Network. "This goes on from early in the morning toward dark."
   May also wonders what effect the detonations will have on dolphins, which depend on their echo-locating ability to find food and detect predators. Although the dolphins may only pass through the Laguna Madre area, the blasts might cause permanent damage to their ear bones, she said.
   Kendal Keyes, another resident, said the boats are so loud she can't bear to be on her deck when they pass by.
   "It is disturbing the peace of our community," Keyes said. "Maybe we should discuss other alternatives to their activities or the air boats."
   

Noise from airplanes

   Not everyone is bothered by the noise. Some people say the noise is less intrusive than the airplanes from Naval Air Station Corpus Christi.
   Jennie Ashmore and Ann Coburn, owners of the Laguna Shores Village RV park, said the noise is tolerable and they only hear it once in the morning and at the end of the afternoon. Also, the workers are good tenants at the park, Ashmore said.
   "We have airplanes going over our heads for a solid week," Ashmore said. "These guys are not a fourth as loud as that."
   The company will try to decrease the disturbances, said Gary Flaharty, director of investor relations for Baker Hughes Inc.
   "The crews only operate during daylight hours, and obviously we do work with local communities to minimize any disruption or excess noise during those time frames," Flaharty said.
   Among the concessions the company made was to install mufflers on the air boats to cut down the noise.
   

Protecting the environment

   The air boats were one of the recommendations from Texas Parks and Wildlife to protect the environment, said Ken Rice, the lower coast kills and spills coordinator for the state agency.
   "We have evaluated the type of equipment they use so it will minimize the damage to the habitats," Rice said.
   The work will be noisy and scare birds away, but more damaging is that the blasts will likely kill some fish, Rice said. The workers have been asked to use their boats to scare fish away before a charge is detonated.
   "If they are killing fish, we will document that," Rice said. "We require that they have observers on the boats to evaluate the numbers of fish."
   Also, to protect birds, the vehicles will be restricted from the small islands during the nesting season, which will likely begin in March or April, Rice said.
   The Texas General Land Office, which recently came under new Land Commissioner David Dewhurst, is responsible for permitting the seismic survey operations. Agency spokesman Mark Sanders said the agency wants to do a better job of informing the public about the seismic surveys.
   "We are going to do a better job of letting people know when they are going in so they are not surprised," Sanders said. "The new administration is committed to get the word out so people are not surprised when they start to hear the explosions."
   Staff writer Guy H. Lawrence can be reached at 886-3792 or by e-mail at lawrenceg@scripps.com
   

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