ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENTS - CHAPTER 10 potx

The Man-MadeEnvironment: Noise Noise at levels that may be objectionable in terms of health or nuisance effects as considered in an environmental impact study generally will occur as a

The Man-Made

Environment: Noise

Noise at levels that may be objectionable in terms of health or nuisance effects as considered in an environmental impact study generally will occur as a result of one

of the following activities:

• Construction and plant operation

• Vehicular traffic

• Aircraft

• Population growth and urbanization

The concern about noise is directly related to its negative impacts upon humans and animals Newman and Beattie (1985) have summarized these effects as follows:

• Annoyance

• Permanent or temporary hearing loss

• Speech interference

• Sleep interference

• Health impacts

– Cardiovascular effects

– Achievement scores

– Birth weight

– Mortality rates

– Psychiatric admissions

• Harm to animals

• Effects on productivity of domestic animals

• Vibration of walls and windows

• Radiation of secondary noise

• Human physiological response to intense low frequency sound

• Sonic booms

While these possible effects were tabulated in regard to aviation noise, they also cover possible effects of noise from other sources such as those mentioned at the beginning of this chapter Each of these possible effects will be discussed briefly

Annoyance may be on an individual or community-wide basis It is probably the

most common reaction to unwanted, unpleasant noise On an individual basis, it pro-vokes an emotional reaction to the noise that may include a physiological response, 10

a concern about the effect of the noise on the individual’s health, an anger about the inability to carry on a conversation at normal levels, possible fears associated with the source of the noise, and above all, anger at the intrusion of one’s privacy, especially when the noise is heard indoors Many of those same factors apply to a community reaction to noise Here the major annoyances may include anger at the destruction of the general ambience which sets the tone for the community, as well as interference with home values, community events (schools, churches, etc.), and outdoor activities

Hearing loss may be either permanent or temporary Continuous exposure to

high levels of noise will damage human hearing The upper limit of hearing is about

120 dB (Newman and Beattie, 1985), at which discomfort begins to occur Pain usu-ally starts at 140 dB with auditory fatigue or acoustical injury eventuusu-ally being reached However, even sounds below the 90 to 100 dB range may bring about short-term changes in hearing

A temporary reduction in hearing acuity is a common effect of noise in industrial

or entertainment situations After exposure to high noise levels for a short time, or moderate noise levels over a long time, some hearing ability may be lost Recovery

of hearing usually occurs within several hours (Newman and Beattie, 1985) Longer exposure to high noise levels may cause a degree of permanent hearing loss or, at a minimum, ringing in the ears

Speech interference could have been listed as a subcategory under annoyance.

The distance at which speech is intelligible can be shortened dramatically by loud

noise Sleep interference is properly classified as a health problem The importance

of this effect is shown by the fact that most state and local noise laws have much lower maximum values at night than in the daytime Other health effects listed in the sec-ond paragraph of this chapter are self-evident and do not require further elaboration Harm to animals is difficult to quantify since laboratory studies are often quite dissimilar to the real situation Nevertheless, certain effects are obvious One may divide the effects into two categories—wild and domestic animals Wild animals are considered to be those that live in wildlife refuges, national parks, and wilderness areas In the case of short-time noises, for example, construction, the animals may simply vacate the area Whether or not they come back again depends upon the nature

of the project However, for continuing noise such as from traffic or aviation, the response of animals appears to be species-dependent and varies from almost no reac-tion to no tolerance of the sound (Newman and Beattie, 1985)

Some birds will be driven away permanently from nesting areas as a result of a pro-ject that brings a human population into the area (e.g., eagles) whereas others do not seem to be affected at all The same applies to vehicular traffic and aviation flights as well Newman and Beattie (1985) have described a study by Edwards et al (1979) which observed 11 different avian species in a test employing helicopters and other air-craft Exhibit 5 presents the results of the Edwards (1979) study and shows how the var-ious species of birds reacted as the decibel level was increased from 70 to 95 dB According to Newman and Beattie (1985), fish appear to have little response to outside noises, even including sonic booms This apparently is because most of the sound is reflected off the water

Studies on pigs (Bond et al., 1980) have shown that jet and propeller aircraft sounds from 120 to 135 dB for 12 h, from weaning time to slaughter, showed no effects on feeding or weight gain A similar study on dairy cattle showed no differ-ences in milk production or any other abnormal effects (Parker and Bayley, 1960) Poultry also have shown no appreciable reaction to aircraft flyover noise and neither have mink (Newman and Beattie, 1985) On the other hand, laboratory studies of rats, mice, monkeys, and rabbits have shown hearing damage when these animals were exposed to high level noise (Newman and Beattie, 1985)

Noise is measured in decibels This number is equivalent to the sound pressure level The human ear perceives sound, which is mechanical energy, as a pressure on the ear The sound pressure level is the logarithmic ratio of that sound pressure to a reference pressure and is expressed as the decibel

Sound is measured by a meter which reads units called decibels (dB) For high-way traffic and other noises, an adjustment, or weighing, of the high- and low-pitched sounds is made to approximate the way that an average person hears sounds The adjusted sounds are called A-weighted levels (dBA)

The A-weighted decibel scale begins at zero This represents the faintest sound that can be heard by humans with very good hearing The loudness of sounds (that is,

Exhibit 5 Dose-response of 11 species measured at Arkansas refuge (From Edwards et al., U.S Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, 1979 With permission.)

how loud they seem to humans) varies from person to person, so there is no precise definition of loudness However, based on many tests of large numbers of people, a sound level of 70 is twice as loud to the listener as a level of 60 This principle is illus-trated in Exhibit 6, which was produced by the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA, 1980)

Newman and Beattie (1985) have presented an excellent table that shows typi-cal decibel values encountered in daily life and in industry That table is reproduced

as Exhibit 7 Exhibit 8, which is taken from the EPA (EPA, 1974), shows typical noise levels at construction sites Noise levels during construction of a facility are tempo-rary but generally are high enough so that precautions must be taken

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA, 1973) has developed a set of noise level/land-use relationships that are useful in determining the significance of noise levels in relation to land uses The values shown in Exhibit 9 are those that gen-erally are found in the indicated land uses and to which highways and other noise-generating activities should be designed

Decibel levels are not additive, that is, one cannot add a 70 dB noise to a 70 dB setting and obtain 140 dB Instead, the final result would be between 73 and 74 dB

In addition, noise is three-dimensional in nature because of its sound wave charac-teristics Consequently, in projecting noise effects on a specific setting, such as from a highway onto different levels of a nearby house, one must analyze a three-dimensional model and a time of day factor as well These models are particularly and frequently used for highway traffic and aviation noise effects on buildings Highway traffic noise is the largest single source of noise that is considered most frequently in an EIS This noise is not constant The noise level changes with the number, type, and speed of the vehicles which produce it Traffic noise variations can

be plotted as a function of time However, it is usually inconvenient and cumbersome

to use such a graph to represent traffic noise A more practical method is to convert the noise data to a single representative number

Statistical descriptors are almost always used as a single number to describe varying traffic noise levels The two most common statistical descriptors used for traffic noise are L10and Leq L10is the sound level that is exceeded 10 percent of the time Leqis the constant, average sound level, which, over a period of time, contains the same amount of sound energy as the varying levels of the traffic noise Leqfor typ-ical traffic conditions is usually about 3 dBA less than the L10for the same conditions The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA, 1980) has established noise impact criteria for different land uses close to highways Some of the exterior crite-ria are illustrated below

If a project causes a significant increase in the future noise level over the exist-ing noise level, it also is considered to have an impact

Exhibit 6 Perception of sound levels (From Federal Highway Administration, 1980 With permission.)

© 1999 by CRC Press LLC

Exhibit 7

Comparative Noise Levels

Typical Decibel (dBA) Values Encountered in Daily Life and Industry dBA

Loudly reproduced orchestral music in large room 82

Beginning of Hearing Damage if Prolonged Exposure over 85 dBA

Heavy diesel-propelled vehicle (about 25 ft away) 92

Source: From Newman, J S And Beattie, K R., Aviation noise effects, U.S Department of

Transportation, Report No FAA-EE-85-2, 1985 With permission.

Exhibit 8

Typical Ranges of Energy-Equivalent Noise Levels

in dBA at Construction Sites

Industrial Parking Public Works Office Building, Garage, Religious, Roads and Hotel, Hospital, Amusement and Highways, Domestic School, Public Recreation, Store Sewers, and Housing Works Service Station Trenches

Note: I represents all pertinent equipment present at site and II represents the minimum required

equip-ment present at site.

Source: Information on levels of environmental noise requisite to protect public health and welfare with

an adequate margin of safety, U.S Environmental Protection Agency, Publication 550/9-74-004, Office of Noise Abatement and Control, Washington, D.C., 1974 With permission.

The day-night noise level (Ldn), which is derived from hourly Leqover a 24 h period, takes into account increased nighttime sensitivity to noise

As is the case with highways, aviation has its own peculiar set of noise prob-lems In the case of aviation, however, the noise appears to consist primarily of short-term, high intensity bursts of noise at specific time periods in specified flight paths Furthermore, the effect of the noise is very specific to the sensitive receptor source As an example of this, the Federal Aviation Administration (Newman et al., 1982) has developed a set of helicopter noise curves for use in environmental impact assessments They present the results of FAA measurement programs in 1976, 1978, and 1980 in a single report with data formatted specifically for environmental impact analyses This data base provides the noise input information necessary to develop helicopter noise contours using a computer model such as the FAA Integrated Noise Model

Airports have been the subject of a considerable number of noise studies The Illinois Institute of Natural Resources (Schomer et al., 1981) studied 22 airports (excluding Chicago’s O’Hare and Midway Airports) in Illinois They found that two failed to meet the 1980 limit of 75 dB and an additional 12 would fail to meet the

1985 limit of 65 dB

Exhibit 9

Noise Level/Land-Use Relationships

Land-Use Design Noise

Category Level-L 10 Description of Land-Use Category

A 60 dBA (exterior) Tracts of land in which serenity and quiet are of

extraordi-nary significance and serve an important public need, and where the preservation of those qualities is essential if the area is to continue to serve its intended purpose Such areas could include amphitheaters, particular parks or portions of parks, or open spaces which are dedicated or recognized by appropriate local officials for activities requiring special qualities of serenity and quiet.

B 70 dBA (exterior) Residences, motels, hotels, public meeting rooms, schools,

churches, libraries, hospitals, picnic areas, playgrounds, active sports areas, and parks.

C 75 dBA (exterior) Developed lands, properties or activities not included in

categories A and B above.

D 55 dBA (interior) Residences, motels, hotels, public meeting rooms, schools,

churches, libraries, hospitals, and auditoriums

Note: The interior design noise level in Category D applies to indoor activities for those situations where

no exterior noise sensitive land use or activity is identified

Source: From Highway traffic noise: a design guide for highway engineers, Federal Highway

Administration, National Cooperative Highway Research Program Report No 117, 1973 With permission.

10.3 LEGISLATION AND FEDERAL AGENCY POLICIES

The Federal law controlling noise is the Noise Control Act of 1972 Under the Act, the EPA published information on what was known about the levels of noise neces-sary to protect public health The noise control part of the EPA was dissolved in the early 1980s and practically all of the noise control activities now reside in the states and municipalities There are various generally accepted guidelines as to the levels of noise that should be allowed in various types of locations at different hours of the day, and this had led to a patchwork of noise control levels across the country

The EPA prepared Exhibit 10, which summarizes the yearly equivalent sound levels identified as requisite to protect the public health and welfare with an adequate margin of safety

The Federal Interagency Committee on Urban Noise (1980) published an excel-lent description of the noise policies and programs of federal agencies relating to land use That description is summarized in this section Following is a list of the agencies involved:

• Department of Defense (DOD)

• Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)

• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

• Department of Transportation/Federal Aviation Administration (DOT/FAA)

• Department of Transportation/Federal Highway Administration (DOT/ FHWA)

• Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)

All of the policies address transportation noise problems, particularly those of highways and airport systems The policies emphasize these noise sources because fed-eral agencies have provided billions of dollars for their construction and maintenance The major differences among the policies center upon the noise levels specified and the types of noise measures used or required There are four different types of noise levels used in these policies:

• Mitigation levels (e.g., FHWA design levels)

• Levels required to protect the public health and welfare (e.g., the EPA lev-els document)

• General planning (land use) levels (e.g., DOD)

• Levels required for federal assistance (e.g., HUD, VA), these are similar to the general planning levels

Because of differences in statutory authority, the noise policies differ in the kinds

of noise actions and techniques emphasized The FAA and EPA regulations stress source and operational controls for aircraft and highway vehicles The FHWA policy,

in the main, stresses noise mitigation at noise sensitive locations along highways HUD and VA require that the receiver (e.g., residential development) be provided noise attenuation as a condition for mortgage insurance or assistance

An agency by agency breakdown follows

Exhibit 10

Yearly Average a Equivalent Sound Levels Identified as Requisite

to Protect the Public Health with an Adequate Margin of Safety

Measure Interference Hearing Loss b Effects c Interference Hearing Loss b Effects c

land

a Refers to energy rather than arithmetic averages

b The exposure period that results in hearing loss at the identified level is 40 years.

c Based on the lowest level.

d Because different types of activities appear to be associated with different levels, identification of a maximum level for activity interference may be difficult except in those circumstances where speech communication is a critical activity.

e Based only on hearing loss.

f An Leq(8) of 75 dB may be identified in these situations so long as the exposure over the remaining 16 h per day is low enough to result in a negligible contribution to the 24 hr average, that is, no greater than an Leqof 60 dB

Source: Information on levels of environmental noise requisite to protect public health and welfare with an adequate margin of safety; U.S Environmental Protection

Agency, Publication 550/9-74-004, Office of Noise Abatement and Control, Washington, D.C., 1974 With permission.

© 1999 by CRC Press LLC

10.3.1 D EPARTMENT OF D EFENSE (DOD)

The Department of Defense policy for noise compatible land-use guidance is called the air installation compatible use zone (AICUZ) Each military service studies noise exposure and land use at all DOD air installations Each study contains noise con-tours, accident potential zones, existing and future land-use compatibilities and incompatibilities, and land-use planning/control recommendations Department of Defense policy requires that all reasonable, economical, and practical measures be taken to reduce and/or control the generation of noise from flying

10.3.2 D EPARTMENT OF H OUSING AND

U RBAN D EVELOPMENT (HUD)

The major purpose of the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) noise regulations (24 CFR Part 51 Subpart B) is to ensure that activities assisted or insured by the department achieve the goal of a suitable living environment The reg-ulations apply to all HUD actions and provide minimum national standards to protect citizens against excessive noise in their communities and places of residence HUD assistance for construction of new noise sensitive uses is prohibited for projects with unacceptable noise exposures and is discouraged for projects with normally unac-ceptable noise exposures Unacunac-ceptable noise exposure is defined as a noise level above 75 dB [day–night average sound level (DNL) in decibels] A normally unac-ceptable level is one above 65 dB but not exceeding 75 dB These noise levels are to

be based on noise from all sources, highway, railroad, and aircraft Attenuation mea-sures are required before projects in the normally unacceptable zone can be approved

10.3.3 E NVIRONMENTAL P ROTECTION A GENCY (EPA)

The key statutory mandates under which EPA operated until its noise group was abol-ished are the Noise Control Act of 1972 (PL92-574) and the Quiet Communities Act

of 1978 (95-609) The EPA set noise source emission standards for various products, including transportation vehicles, construction equipment, and consumer products The EPA also proposed aircraft/airport regulations to the FAA following a special procedure specified in the Noise Control Act of 1972 The EPA Levels Document established threshold levels of impact which, if met, would protect the public with an adequate margin of safety

In a grants program under the Quiet Communities Act, the EPA initiated such technical assistance programs as the Quiet Communities Program (QCP) and Each Community Helps Others (ECHO)

10.3.4 D EPARTMENT OF T RANSPORTATION /F EDERAL

A VIATION A DMINISTRATION (DOT/FFA)

The Federal Aviation Administration’s noise program is guided by the 1976 Aviation Noise Abatement Policy and the Aviation Safety and Noise Abatement Act of 1979 The FAA uses two major approaches to implement this policy The first includes a program to retrofit engines or equipment on noisy aircraft or to replace them with