How to deal with persistent noise pollution from a factory

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#2876580 28-Feb-2022 21:34

What's feasible will depend heavily on exactly what the fan is and what it's doing, but practically anything can be made almost silent with enough money.

The Farrah's issues, from what I'm seeing in the articles above, are related to a large number of different bits of machinery, some of which are actually mounted to the delivery trucks, and some which predate them moving into the site by some decades. Much more specialised and difficult to deal with. Plain old extract fan? Slap a bend on it.

MadEngineer

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#2876586 28-Feb-2022 22:05

Just want to acknowledge, as there will be some that don’t appreciate what such a noise can be like to live with, how truely horrible it can be. Exasperating the experience can be family that are being stressed out with the noise which only adds to your own.

I hope you can at least take a break from it and spend a night or two away somewhere before it affects you too much. You shouldn’t have to and try not to look at it as the factory making you waste money on a stay somewhere, rather look at it as doing it for yourselves.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

wired

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#2876605 28-Feb-2022 23:02

From what I can see, the noise limits need to be within the limits set out in the Auckland plan https://unitaryplan.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Images/Auckland%20Unitary%20Plan%20Operative/Chapter%20E%20Auckland-wide/3.%20Built%20environment/E25%20Noise%20and%20vibration.pdf Table E25.6.5.1.

70 DbA eq is pretty loud. It is the level of noise that a vacuum cleaner makes. (The A refers to the profile with A being what a human ear ‘hears’ and the ‘eq’ means that the it the equivalent continuous sound level and there is a formula to convert individual readings into an equivalent continuous setting).

So I expect that the noise limits won’t help you much so the other suggestions may be more fruitful.

Jase2985

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#2876625 1-Mar-2022 07:50

but remember for every doubling of distance, the sound level reduces by 6 decibels (dBA), Inverse square rule.

Danite

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#2876626 1-Mar-2022 07:54

Sounds like you have got things moving slowly, good work!

Another angle could be to go to a different council? I don't know how councils in Auckland work but we have a district and a regional council.. For a noise issue I would normally call the district council but if I got no action there would follow up with the regional council as they are responsible for environmental issues which you could argue this is. Generally the regional council gets less complaints so has more time to follow things up.

You also have grounds for a complaint even if its not over the threshold if it has a particular sound, not sure who assesses this but also worth looking into.

Some general advice here https://www.consumer.org.nz/articles/noise-control

This one has mention of "Special Characteristics" https://www.hamilton.govt.nz/our-services/environment-and-health/noisecontrol/Pages/Excessive-Noise-.aspx

Special audible characteristics, such as:
- Tonal (e.g. hum, whine)
- Impulsive (e.g. bangs, clicks)
- Frequency/pitch (e.g. high speed cutting, grinding, heavy beat)
- Intermittent

MikeAqua

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#2876632 1-Mar-2022 08:17

wired:

From what I can see, the noise limits need to be within the limits set out in the Auckland plan https://unitaryplan.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz/Images/Auckland%20Unitary%20Plan%20Operative/Chapter%20E%20Auckland-wide/3.%20Built%20environment/E25%20Noise%20and%20vibration.pdf Table E25.6.5.1.

70 DbA eq is pretty loud. It is the level of noise that a vacuum cleaner makes. (The A refers to the profile with A being what a human ear ‘hears’ and the ‘eq’ means that the it the equivalent continuous sound level and there is a formula to convert individual readings into an equivalent continuous setting).

So I expect that the noise limits won’t help you much so the other suggestions may be more fruitful.

I read the limit for light industrial as 65dbAeq, that's at source.

Mike

Jase2985

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#2876644 1-Mar-2022 08:44

@MikeAqua:

I read the limit for light industrial as 65dbAeq, that's at source.

"measured within the boundary of any other site in those zones"

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floydbloke

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#2888437 18-Mar-2022 18:25

@neb Any progress to report? Keen to know how you're getting on.

Did Eric Clapton really think she looked wonderful...or was it after the 15th outfit she tried on and he just wanted to get to the party and get a drink?

neb

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#2888525 18-Mar-2022 21:30

floydbloke:
@neb Any progress to report? Keen to know how you're getting on.

The official channel, council noise control, have provided just enough illusory progress that I haven't switched to alternative methods, although I've had a letter to local board members drafted since a day or two after it was suggested. I'll give it till next week and then escalate, at which point I've got a fairly detailed pearly harbour file of the council being totally incapable of doing anything.

It's actually quite cleverly set up, when you call the council number you go to a call center who have no ability to do anything except record a case. The case is then picked up by noise control who do nothing [*]. However, the end user can't talk to noise control, the only entity they can communicate with is the council call centre who have no ability to do anything except record another case. The call centre have tried calling noise control for me and got no response, and one council operator actually put me through to a noise control person's cellphone, but I just got voicemail and they never returned the call. So the whole system provides the illusion of something being done, and if questioned a clear process that can be pointed to, while ensuring that nothing needs to be done and no-one has any responsibility for anything getting done.

[*] In four weeks I've had one single call from noise control, on a Friday, promising to call me on Saturday or Sunday to look into it. Needless to say, no-one ever called.

MadEngineer

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#2889708 21-Mar-2022 19:19

Request under the OIA the number of calls received to the council for noise control complaints and the number of noise control complaints billed for over three months.

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

neb

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#2890824 23-Mar-2022 16:00

MadEngineer:
Request under the OIA the number of calls received to the council for noise control complaints and the number of noise control complaints billed for over three months.

LGOIMA request submitted. It's surprisingly easy via the council web site, in fact a bit too easy since I suspect they get inundated with trivial requests along the lines of whether the neighbour is allowed to put their rubbish out the evening before which may slow things down a bit.

insane

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#2890884 23-Mar-2022 17:35

I did one to try uncover the justification for making Onewa road a T3 and extending the clearway times. I got troves of information on it (a day after the decision was finalised), quite a lot redacted from various council meetings. Spoiler - no solid reason.

I was honestly impressed they took the time to put it all together!

neb

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#2890886 23-Mar-2022 17:42

insane: I did one to try uncover the justification for making Onewa road a T3 and extending the clearway times. I got troves of information on it (a day after the decision was finalised), quite a lot redacted from various council meetings.

Impressive! I was remembering the episode from the Australian political satire Utopia... oh, an excerpt of which is online. It goes on like that for an entire episode.

MadEngineer

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#2890974 23-Mar-2022 19:20

insane: I did one to try uncover the justification for making Onewa road a T3 and extending the clearway times. I got troves of information on it (a day after the decision was finalised), quite a lot redacted from various council meetings. Spoiler - no solid reason.

I was honestly impressed they took the time to put it all together!

Got a project that a council has recently completed themselves? Request the details of it to save all the leg work. Profit.

Tongue -> cheek

You're not on Atlantis anymore, Duncan Idaho.

insane

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#2890995 23-Mar-2022 19:52

Well you get some real gems if you bother to read it all. One good example is where decisions are made, and then they commission a very expensive report by a consultancy firm a year later to agree with their decision made.

Other information is so redacted it's almost pointless trying to read it.

Anyhow this is off topic, other than to say I think it's a good idea to get you OIA in to see what they are doing in this instance where action is missing.

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