There’s one go-to organization, and one go-to guy, for information about local noise regulations. He’s Les Blomberg, founder of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse. Blomberg has been tracking noise ordinances in US localities for many years; his site www.nonoise.org provides an indispensable library of noise regulations and other background information about noise. When Les offered an online talk on “the good, the bad, and the ugly” in noise limits, he was pretty clear about the bad:
The bad noise ordinance protects the noise polluter with high levels. Here’s a perfect example of that. This is from, uh, the noise ordinance in Waco, Texas, 85 decibels. You know what 85 decibels does? What 85 decibels does is it’s a license to pollute. It’s not a noise level that is protective. I would say any level at 65 or above in a residential community during the day and and 60 or above in the night, if that’s what you have in your regulations, you’ve got an ordinance that’s more designed to protect the noise polluter than it is to protect the noise polluted.
Yonkers now has something in common with Waco. We both have 85 decibel daytime noise limits. And that’s bad.
