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Noise Headlines and Top Story- Updated May 17, 2010
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* City Claims Success with Zero-Tolerance Noise Policy
* GE Calls for Expedited Environmental Review of Some NextGen Procedures
* Study Calls for Standard Methods of Implementing EU Noise Directive
* Group Faults UK Airport Noise Action Plans
* Noise Research Presented at ASA-INCE Joint Meeting
* FAA Awards AIP Grants for Noise Projects
* FAA Selects Preferred Philadelphia Runway Plan
* NIOSH Plans Research Agenda to Address Noise in Manufacturing
* Noise Targeted in Senate-Passed FAA Reauthorization Bill
* Army to Mitigate Noise Impacts of Explosive Ordnance Disposal School
* Bob Hope Airport Pursues Options for Mandatory Curfew
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Community-Based Management of
Environmental Noise Advocated
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With community noise—especially transportation noise—continuing to grow, and a perceived lack of coordination on the national level to address its causes and mitigation, consultant Lawrence Finegold is calling for community-based environmental noise management.
“Because of its negative impacts on the health and welfare of the population, environmental noise is related to the sustainable of growth of communities,” said Finegold, current chair of the Institute of Noise Control Engineering of the USA (INCE-USA) Technical Committee on Community Noise. He presented his vision at a special session at the INCE-USA and Acoustical Society of America joint meeting last month.
“The effects of noise on people are the major purpose for noise policy-making activities. Currently, there is very little emphasis on community noise issues at the federal level and very little support for local community programs, [while] implementation of the preemption principle severely limits what can be done at the state and local levels.”
Community-based environmental noise management allows communities to seek solutions to local problems according to local priorities and resources while promoting sustainable development and encourages a broad, proactive approach, rather than struggling with one local noise problem at a time, according to Finegold. Local governments can develop strategic environmental noise management plans comprised of noise mapping, land use planning and action plans that identify and protect sensitive land uses, local noise ordinances, building codes, sound insulation programs, public outreach and information, complaint management, and dispute resolution.
Finegold identified these basic principles and attributes of effective community-based environmental noise management:
• adopt a place-oriented approach that focuses on a geographic area, instead of individual noise problems;
• work collaboratively with a full range of stakeholders;
• assess the quality and composition of the overall community noise environment;
• integrate public rights, values, and priorities, business and development interests, and government responsibilities;
• use the most appropriate tools to seek acceptable, affordable, and technologically feasible, long-term solutions;
• coordination of federal, state, and local policies;
• technical support from national, regional, state, and local governments working together;
• develop a positive attitude and well-defined process for negotiation and compromise;
• controlling noise at the source is the most effective approach to mitigating the effects of noise on communities;
• land use planning is the most powerful long-range tool;
• monitor and redirect efforts through adaptive management;
• use an expanded environmental impact assessment process (EIAP) and land use planning to address noise issues related to new development.
‘Negotiation and Compromise’
“EIAP uses negotiation and compromise to develop decisions at the individual project level,” said Finegold. “It complements the use of local noise ordinances and building codes that are understandable and enforceable.” Other components of an EIAP include:
• shared information and negotiation to arrive at informed, affordable decisions that can be implemented;
• decisions are documented and implementation is monitored;
• guidelines are negotiable and include consideration of cost and technical feasibility;
• formal arbitration and dispute resolution, when necessary.
Suggested significance criteria for assessing environmental noise impacts consist of descriptors ranging from “none” (either no adverse impacts or beneath the threshold of human perception) to “severe” (adverse effects of such importance that action should be determined on noise grounds alone, irrespective of other factors).
New Standard
A complementary effort is underway to create an American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard on guidelines for developing state noise regulations and local noise ordinances. The purpose is to provide local authorities with a basis for developing customized noise control ordinances and zoning performance standards that give communities a technical basis for managing their sound environments.
The ANSI working group is considering a two-part standard consisting of general guidance and a model ordinance with a menu of options, according to Finegold. “Enforcement will be crucial to success,” he said.
Now in its sixth draft, the standard could be finalized later this year, said Bennett Brooks, a member of the working group. It addresses priorities, values, available resources, trade-offs, enforcement, sound level measurement instruments and procedures, selection of criteria levels, control at the source, and more.
Copyright 2010 Great Circle Communications LLC. No unauthorized posting, forwarding, or any other form of transmission of this material, by any means, in whole or in part, is allowed.
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