Florida’s Natural Tranquility Is Being Threatened By Airboat Noise

August 22, 1996

GAINESVILLE — As Florida’s population grows, residents’ rights are increasingly clashing with the rights of those enjoying the state’s natural resources, a conflict exemplified by the fight over airboat use, said a University of Florida researcher and his professor.

“Airboats are legal in recreational areas, but many of these recreational areas are right up against residential areas,” said Richard Markle, a recent graduate of the department of urban and regional planning at UF. “This problem will grow as the population grows.”

Airboats are different from other boats because they are powered by an elevated, virtually unmuffled, high horsepower motor with a large air propeller. This makes them noisier than traditional outboard motors, which have lower, smaller and muffled engines with propellers submerged in the water.

“The noise from airboats is much louder than an outboard motor,” Markle said. “The noise from airboats shakes houses, with a low frequency.”

An airboat’s motor noise is allowed to be up to about 90 decibels, the same amount of noise produced by a pneumatic concrete breaker, according to Florida statutes. An outboard motor is about 45 decibels. All watercraft are required to have a muffling device, although the single straight pipe on airboats does little to quiet the boats.

“Airboats are the only vehicles which have exceptions to the official noise rules,” Markle said. “There is no way for a straight pipe to adequately muffle the noise these things make.”

Markle has taken his case to the Alachua County Commission trying to change the existing airboat laws in Alachua County.

“My suggestion was to prohibit airboats on Orange Lake between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m.,

which seemed to go over pretty well,” Markle said. “The commissioners will now give

all the information I presented to the county planners and codes enforcement agencies.”

Such regulations would help to preserve areas like Cross Creek at Orange Lake, where internationally famous author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings sought quiet refuge.

“Rawlings came here to escape the rattle-bang of civilization,” said Orjan Wetterqvist, senior professor of urban and regional planning at UF. “People now come here to the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings home, a state museum, in order to experience that quiet setting. But now you often hear the immense noise of airboats. Now Cross Creek is frequently noisier than the civilization she was fleeing. It’s absurd.”

Several counties have restrictions on when airboats can be used, in the form of time restrictions or no-wake zones. Other areas have designated sanctuaries where airboats would not be allowed, such as Lake Yale in Lake County and Rainbow Lake in Marion County.

Markle and Wetterqvist feel governments need to designate certain areas — on land and in salt and fresh water — as naturally quiet areas where no motor vehicles should ever be allowed.

“The United States, including Florida, should have expansive areas that retain the grand quiet of nature,” Wetterqvist said.

Markle is trying to preserve Orange Lake as a sanctuary from this noise through his recommendations to the county commission.

“Orange Lake would be an ideal place to establish a sanctuary because of the

bird rookeries and the specific geography not seen anywhere else,” Markle said. “This is an area which should be preserved as much as possible.”

As Florida’s population grows, similar problems like this will appear, stemming from different groups having varying opinions on the best use of the state’s resources.

“We need to deal with noise as the population grows,” Markle said. “Since we are not allowed to slow down the population growth, we need to do something about the use of resources or this will continue to be a problem.”