The distant whistling quickly crescendoed into a banshee howl, then abruptly dropped to a bone-rattling roar. Another jetliner was passing a few hundred feet above Orchard Place School in Des Plaines, inbound for O`Hare International Airport.
Every two minutes or so, when the wind was blowing out of the southwest, the thunder of jets would disrupt classes for children at the school-until $675,000 of soundproofing work finally muffled the noise.
”Planes would come in from the northeast, directly across the school . . . and you`d have to stop talking,” said Paul W. Jung, superintendent of Des Plaines Elementary School District 62.
But Jung acknowledged a benefit of the airport: ”Because of O`Hare we have lots of industry, and industry gives us a high assessed value and allows us to have a good school system. You put up with the noise.”
In a small way, the school is an example of the love-hate relationship in which the northwest suburbs and O`Hare are entwined. The school also is a symbol of the great expense and extraordinary measures required to mitigate the noise problem.
Results of a Chicago Tribune survey of northwest suburban opinion about the airport underscored the depth and complexity of the economic ties that bind and the noise issue that divides the airport and its suburban neighbors. As part of the survey, 800 residents of northwest Cook County suburbs were questioned about airport issues, and more than half said O`Hare was so important to the region`s economy that people should put up with some noise.
Even so, those surveyed were less supportive of a proposal to build a new runway at the airport, a runway many believe will bring more air traffic and with it an ever-spreading wake of noise.
Overall, opinion was evenly divided on the issue. But among those living closest to the airport, and thus most affected by noise, a majority opposed a new runway.
The noise debate has been around for years, but it is heating up again.
In September, Chicago will complete a six-year, court-ordered noise abatement plan for O`Hare. Suburban officials already are attacking portions of the $1 million study, saying the plan would subject more people to jet noise and possibly lead to the wholesale demolition of hundreds of homes in the hardest-hit blocks.
Another fear is that if air traffic at O`Hare continues to grow, a lot more schools could end up like Orchard Place.
About $675,000 was spent in 1984 to soundproof the school with double-paned windows, air conditioning and new entry vestibules.
The school is one of 27 near O`Hare where $40 million has been spent since 1983 under a soundproofing program in which the Federal Aviation Administration pays 80 percent of the cost, Chicago and the airlines 10 percent, and local school districts, 10 percent. Nineteen more schools recently qualified for soundproofing funds.
The poll suggested that there isn`t a lot of sympathy for those who moved next to the airport and then complain about the noise. Most said airport neighbors knew what they were getting into when they moved in.
That, of course, is no comfort to longtime airport neighbors who have endured worsening noise as the number of flights increased.
And it does not take into account residents of Arlington Heights who are up in arms over a proposal to lower the decibel level in closer-in communities by shifting aircraft operations westward.
Under the plan, part of the noise study to be released in September, about 130 more flights each night would be routed over Arlington Heights.
”That`s not noise abatement. That`s dumping the noise somewhere else,”
said Glenn Lehner, a member of the Committee on Aircraft Noise of the Heritage Park Homeowners Association in south Arlington Heights.
”Noise has increased over Arlington Heights, the frequency of departures especially, over the last five to six years,” Lehner said. ”Some days it will go for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, one plane every 30 seconds, and in the end you`re screaming at everybody in the house.”
June Albert of Des Plaines says she`s willing to put up with some noise. It`s a new runway she won`t stand for.
”The noise is not one of my priorities,” said Albert, a retiree who moved into her home 28 years ago. ”We moved here knowing there was an airport, so I can`t say now we should get rid of it.”
”What alarms me the most about O`Hare is the number of planes landing and taking off there,” she said. ”Adding another runway won`t help that. If anything, it will make things more dangerous.”
Albert`s views are representative of many in the suburbs surrounding O`Hare. An advisory referendum question last November, which asked whether new runways should be prohibited at O`Hare, passed in 18 of 19 Cook and Du Page County municipalities and townships.
Voting ran 2 to 1 in favor of a prohibition on new runways, demonstrating the depth of sentiment against expansion, said Matthew Rosenberg, director of the O`Hare Citizens Coalition, a grassroots affiliate of the Suburban O`Hare Commission. The commission is a consortium of 12 suburbs opposed to any expansion of the airport if it means more flights and noise.
”The question that should be asked is not if we should accept noise, but if we should accept more noise,” he said, citing studies by Chicago and the Federal Aviation Administration that predict a new runway could increase O`Hare`s plane-handling capacity by as much as half.
Yet Rosenberg and other opponents of an expanded O`Hare acknowledged the contribution the airport has made over the years to the region`s economy.
Without O`Hare, there would likely have been no burst of northwest suburban industrial development starting in the late 1950s. Industry triggered the housing boom of the 1960s, and home building spurred the development of shopping centers, like Woodfield Mall, in the 1970s.
Population growth ultimately led to a flurry of office, hotel, retail and restaurant development in the 1980s that gave Schaumburg and surrounding communities the richest concentration of commercial properties and jobs in the state outside downtown Chicago.
In opposing a new runway, the Suburban O`Hare Commission says that the city should instead scale back the number of flights, phase out older, noisier aircraft, and fast-track construction of a third airport at a rural site south of the city.
”We`re not saying, `Close down O`Hare.` We`re saying, `Mitigate the noise,` ” said Charles Zettek, village president of Elk Grove Village and vice chairman of the commission.
Zettek acknowledged that ”no doubt about it,” partly because of its proximity to the airport, ”Elk Grove Village has the largest business and industrial park of its kind in the nation, possibly the world-five square miles of approximately 3,000 plants and more than 65,000 jobs.”
But he added that he saw no conflict in reducing usage of the airport to mitigate noise while at the same time continuing to foster suburban economic growth.
The underlying economic strength of the region is such that trimming the number of operations at O`Hare to perhaps 700,000 a year from 800,000 currently ”would in no way cause injury of any kind to business and industrial development in the northwest suburbs,” Zettek said.
Proposals to expand O`Hare have galvanized organizations like the Suburban O`Hare Commission and the O`Hare Citizens Coalition, which now claims 8,000 active volunteers in 89 communities.
The stands taken by the special interest groups reflect the opinions of individuals who live near O`Hare, such as Cheryl Aldrich, a Des Plaines resident who works as a purchasing agent for an insurance company.
”I used to be supportive of the airport, but the fact is, it`s getting worse and worse,” Aldrich said. ”Things weren`t this bad 14 or 15 years ago.”
Sue Leonard, a meetings facilitator who lives in Park Ridge, agreed, saying aircraft noise ”has gotten more and more frequent” since she moved to the suburb six years ago.
”It used to be noticeable only on Sunday nights, but now it`s a couple of nights in addition to that,” Leonard said. ”And it`s not only the noise that`s a problem, but when the planes come over with any frequency, you can smell jet fuel inside your house with the windows closed.”
But Steve Doty of Elgin echoed views typical of those who live farther away from the airport who aren`t bothered by noise and favor a new runway at O`Hare.
”I`ve done a lot of traveling, and the delays that go on at O`Hare have gotten worse in the last four years,” said Doty, who works as a food production manager for an industrial catering company. ”I`ve flown to Hartsfield in Atlanta, and though it`s neck-and-neck with O`Hare in terms of daily traffic, O`Hare has more delays.”
”They probably need another runway,” said Herb Simonis, a telecommunications administrator who lives in Wheeling. ”It would mean fewer delays, less pressure on the (air traffic) controllers. . . . What an airport the size of O`Hare contributes to the economy makes things better all around.”
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NEXT: Household environmentalism takes root in the northwest suburbs.
