Five years after Green Bay residents began complaining about mysterious noises inside their home, a consultant says he has tracked the sounds to a refrigerated warehouse located a mile away.
The consultant also is recommending that Green Bay consider tougher rules to protect residents from industrial noise pollution.
A spokesman for Americold, which operates the warehouse at 1731 Morrow St., said the cold-storage company would evaluate the consultant’s findings.
“We intend to continue to be a good neighbor for many years to come,” Americold spokesman Leigh Parrish said.
Consultant Richard James, a noise control engineer hired by the city, said he is certain that Americold’s warehouse is creating the low-frequency noise that has troubled nearby residents.
James said he did not contact Americold for the study because he wanted to ensure that the company would not skew the results by changing its normal routine.
He recounted sitting in a car outside the warehouse during his research. “You could literally feel the car shake,” he said.
Alderman Andy Nicholson, who has been working on the noise issue for years, expressed confidence that the city’s consultant had solved the mystery surrounding the source.
Noting that he has heard similar noise pollution complaints elsewhere in Green Bay, Nicholson said he believes the city should consider adjusting its ordinances to protect people.
“Something has to be done,” he said.
The situation began in 2006 when residents Bob and Leona Ehrfurth started hearing a strange noise in their home at 2048 Mary Queen Road, about a mile south of Americold. Although barely audible at times, the recurring motor-like rumbling became such a nuisance that Leona Ehrfurth said it was causing her sleeplessness and headaches.
After about two years, the couple took their complaints to City Hall and persuaded the city to investigate. Unable to pinpoint the source, city officials hired James and paid him $4,300 to research the problem through his company, E-Coustic Solutions.
James spent two days and nights in and around the Ehrfurths’ home, using sound-measuring equipment to compare the noises they were hearing with those generated by the Americold facility.
The refrigerated warehouse had previously been identified as one potential source of the problem.
According to the study’s findings, the warehouse includes “several clusters of cooling fans” that generate both audible and low-frequency noises, some of which can be detected at the Ehrfurth home as “strong fluctuating tones.”
“There can be little doubt that the sounds propagating from the facility’s cooling system are the source,” the report states.
Contacted at their home, the Ehrfurths declined to comment.
Green Bay city officials plan to approach Americold to discuss the situation and to explore possible resolutions.
William Acker, a Green Bay engineer who assisted James with his research, said the city should pass more restrictive limits on industrial noise pollution.
Although Americold and other businesses could be required to spend money upgrading their operations, Acker said, government should protect people from noise so intrusive that it makes them ill inside their own homes.
“Is it right for that to happen?” he said. “I just don’t think it is.”
Author: Scott Cooper Williams | Source:greenbaypressgazette.com [January 12, 2012]