FBI Building Buzz Disrupts Neighbors

It wasn't hard for Ken Foley to fall in love with Mashie Drive when he first bought his home there in 1976.

The rambler was on the dead-end of a quiet street in Vienna, adjacent to a town park whose paths snaked through tall oaks and small streams, and in later years, to the W+OD trail.

On summer nights, it was still. The breeze rustled the leaves of the trees that towered beyond the rooftop, carrying the chirps of tree frogs and crickets, but otherwise "it was dead quiet," Foley said.

Then, two years ago, the buzzing started.

At its best, it was the low hum of a lawn crew working next door. At its worst, it was as if a helicopter was trying to land down the street.

Since September 2010, Foley and dozens of his neighbors in Southeast Vienna have heard the drone of 23 dry cooler units that sit atop a facility each of them holding 10 separate fan units in a space as big as a medium-sized conference room.

"It's maddening," said Foley, sitting at a table in his rear sunroom. In it, just before 4 p.m Wednesday, the buzz continues even through the double-paned windows. "It gets in your brain and doesn't leave. You can't ignore it."

But despite nearly two years of complaints, emails, meetings, sound readings and tests, neither the residents nor the town of Vienna can get it to stop.

"Our complaints seem to be falling on deaf ears," Foley said. "It seems like they're hoping we go away, but we're not going to go away."

The building's tenant is the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (and potentially, some parts of the Department of Homeland Security), a technology-heavy, 24-hour operation that needs to stay running even through power outages and severe weather.

The issue, residents and town officials say, isn't with the tenant itself — the "nature of the operations at this facility are of vital national security," Town Attorney Steve Briglia said. It's the Bethesda-based Goldstar Group, the owners of the building, who has "dragged their feet" on responding to concerns and seem to show an indifference to solving them, residents and officials say.

"The town is very frustrated by the progress," Town Attorney Steve Briglia said at a Town Council meeting this week. "I don't want the public to think this was put on the backburner."

Goldstar could not be reached for comment at press time.

The residents first contacted the town's planning and zoning department in September 2010, as construction was under way to prepare for the tenant’s November occupancy.

Director Greg Hembree ordered decibel readings of the noise and found they exceeded those allowed by the town’s noise ordinance. The results, along with excessive sound pressure levels, prompted Hembree to issue a cease order on the fans, ordering the building owners to turn off the fans between 8 p.m. and 7 a.m. each day.

He and Briglia then worked with the contractors and building owners on a four-step process to lifting the modified work order, and did so before issuing them an occupancy permit, but suggested a long-term solution, namely a screen wall or noise abatement system for each of the 23 units.

"We already know that — if all the fans on each of these 23 units are running at once — they will exceed our noise limits," Hembree wrote in an October 2010 email to residents. "As for the sound from the units themselves — and as a guy who is blessed with great hearing — I am sure that I will always be able to detect that distinctive hum. However, it remains our charge to ensure that this entire operation complies with [the noise ordinance]."

But the following April, residents were back again. The noise was more manageable that winter, but as temperatures rose, it became more unbearable — especially at night, when the neighborhood was without the traffic on Follin Lane and Maple Avenue that so often shielded the buzz.

Hembree requested another sound reading, taken while all fans ran at full load in warm weather. The study showed the noise again exceeded the town’s maximum nighttime limits.

In September, Goldstar agreed to develop a "noise muffler" to address the issue. The company told town officials several times over the next seven months that a prototype was being developed and tested, officials said. Last month, the town learned that hadn't happened.

"I'm baffled we weren't told sooner that wasn't a viable option," Briglia said. 

This week, Foley asked the town to take more serious action on the issue.

Mayor Jane Seeman said the town met with all parties this week, when they agreed to test a plan that would reduce the number of fans running at night to only those necessary for overnight operations. Professional sound readings will be taken during several test periods. That testing should begin in the coming weeks, she said.

The town always has the right for injunctive relief in circuit court, Briglia said, but "that’s getting a little ahead of ourselves," he said. The town could also take action if they classify the problem as a public nuisance. Briglia said he expects the town to take some kind of action this summer if the issue isn't resolved.

Foley has had just one interaction with the company, last summer, when a man pulled up to where Foley sat at the end of the cul-de-sac, watching his son work on an Eagle Scout project in the park.

When the man said he was with Goldstar, Foley asked if he had come to hear the noise. The man said they were "going to be good neighbors."

That hasn't been the case, Foley said.

New neighbors have housewarming parties, and guests immediately ask about the sound, Foley said. His 12-year-old son, whose bedroom is in the back of the house, complains almost daily he cannot sleep.

To some, the easiest solution would simply be to move. But Foley said he enjoys the home he bought 35 years ago. He just added a second story two years ago, and "plan[s] on dying in this house, or at least retiring.”

Foley said residents, though supportive and appreciative of the town's efforts, have considered taking action on their own. While they don't "have the financial means to go up against someone like Goldstar," there are other legal avenues they can pursue.

"If push comes to shove, we’ll do what we need to do," he said.