Photo credit: Tony Hisgett licensed under CC BY 2.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
From time to time The Quiet Coalition gets inquiries or requests for help in dealing with local noise problems. Each one of these situations is very different, from airplane noise to noise from factories, and TQC can only offer general advice:
1. Research the local noise ordinances.
2. Figure out which person at which agency is responsible for handling noise complaints.
3. Document each and every violation of the noise ordinance, with copies to elected officials for the jurisdiction(s) involved and to local news media.
4. Involve local news media if possible.
5. Involve local schools with noise measurement, documentation, and reporting being part of class projects beginning with fourth or fifth grade and going up through high school.
While this advice doesn’t always get the result the inquirer wants, things are beginning to change and decision makers–whether at the city, state, or federal level–are starting to take noise seriously. And as this report shows, sometimes the courts will uphold enforcement of local noise control and nuisance abatement ordinances.
