CAMDEN — At first, Gwen DeHart states emphatically that he won't sell his Camden home to the U.S. Navy for a jet landing field.

"Nope. Nope. Nope," he repeats from the front door of his Smith Drive home when asked if he would part with his house and land.

John Henderson/The Daily Advance (ENLARGE)

Gwen DeHart stands beside a No OLF sign in his yard Friday.

But after his wife, Sandy, cautions him not to take such a strong stand, DeHart relents — a little. He says he and Sandy would only consider selling their home if the jet noise from the landing field became unbearable.

It's a decision the DeHarts don't want to even think about. They in fact moved to Camden to get away from the jet noise in the Virginia Beach area. But given the fact their home could be among the 104 in Camden and Currituck counties that the Navy says could be most affected by noise from an outlying landing field, the prospect of selling is something the DeHarts may have to eventually consider.

Navy officials have been fielding calls from residents of both northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia, each wanting to know where their homes fall in the Navy's preliminary "noise contour zones" for the proposed airfield. The Navy has announced plans to study two sites in North Carolina — one in the Hales Lake area of Camden, the other in Sand Banks, Gates County — and three others in Virginia as possible locations for the field. The OLF is needed, Navy officials say, to give jet pilots somewhere to practice takeoffs and landings similar to those made on carriers at night.

Navy officials emphasize that it is too soon to be releasing specifics about which 104 homes would be affected by an OLF in the Hales Lake area. That's what the upcoming two-year study is designed to do, says Navy spokesman Ted Brown.

"It would be very misleading to say this house or neighborhood is in this contour line at this point," Brown said. "The noise has not been modeled on the (five proposed) sites."

Brown said the contour map the Navy did plop over the Hales Lake site was very generic, and the lines could drastically change after the study.

"We've gotten a lot of queries, not just from the media, but the public, expecting us to have a level of detail. ... (But) at this point it is impossible to have that level of detail," he said.

The Navy's preliminary evaluation of the Hales Lake area projects a northeasterly runway pattern and noise contour zone that would affect 104 homes in a 30,000-acre area of Camden and Currituck. The jet noise zones extend out in an oval shape approximately nine miles in one direction and four to five in the other.

The lines of the eventual noise contours — and how many homes fall within them — will depend greatly upon which way the Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet jets using the OLF approach and depart the field, said Cmdr. Richard Catoire, a Navy official based in Norfolk, Va.

"It could be more (homes are affected by noise after the two-year study), it could be less," he said.

The Navy's preliminary analysis of the Hales Lake site shows 16 homes in what officials refer to as the 65-70 dB DNL zone. A dB, or decibel, is a unit of sound pressure with greater intensity than ambient, or background, sound. According to the Navy, it best reflects the range of human hearing. A "DNL" is a day-night sound level average of all sounds made over a 24-hour period.

According to the Navy, social surveys have found that between 15 percent and 39 percent of an area's population can be expected to be "highly annoyed" by noise in a 65-75 db DNL zone. The Navy's preliminary study shows that 88 homes in Camden and Currituck would fall within a 60-65 db DNL zone.

While jet noise from an OLF isn't expected to "highly annoy" a large segment of the population in a 60-65 db DNL zone, the Navy's preliminary study suggests the number could be higher than 15-39 percent in rural areas where residents aren't used to much noise.

Catoire said no schools would fall within the preliminary noise contour in Camden, but three churches are located within the outer edges of it. He did not immediately know the names of the churches, he said.

The Navy's analysis shows that in Gates County, 151 homes would fall within the preliminary noise zone.

Catoire said the noise in the outer edges of the contour zone might not be that annoying for some homeowners.

"In the 60 (DNL zone), you definitely would not hear (the jet noise) inside (of your home)," Catoire said. "You may hear something outside."

The jet noise would not be limited to those residents whose homes fall in the 30,000-acre contour zone.

Larry Johnson, who heads a Camden citizens group that opposes the OLF, said he believes more residents will be adversely affected by the jet noise than just those in the Navy's 30,000-acre zone.

"We need to know what their flight patterns are in and exiting after they've done their touch-and-goes," he said.

DeHart said all of his neighbors are concerned that a noisy OLF in the Hales Lake area would ruin their quality of life.

"It is just causing hate and discontent," said DeHart, who has a large NO OLF sign on a barn in his backyard.