Ears Wide Open

Wind Turbines Too Noisy, Say Mainers, Texans - Two small communities, very different landscapes, one issue: the whooshing of wind turbines. While proponents have long claimed that the sound of the blades is inadudible, or nearly so, above the sound of the wind that drives them, communities near small wind farms are finding that "insignificant noise" is in the ears of the beholder. In Shallowater, Texas, the local school district installed a small wind farm that is saving $75,000 per year in electricity costs. But Chad Dugger, whose house is 225 feet from the nearest turbine, “I can hear them when they turn off and turn back on. It’s extremely loud in the house I can hear it at night even with the TV on in the living room,” says Dugger. Another area resident, who want to remain anonymous, says, “It’s a pulsating sound just a ‘whooooo’, that’s the part that bothers you.” To some living nearby the sound is not a problem. “Most of the time sort of harmonic you know, just kinda ‘swish, swish’ every once in a while,” says Shallowater resident Dawayne Pounds. Resident Amy Garland adds, “It’s just a humming sound, not a bad sound." Meanwhile, the Freedom, Maine Board of Appeals overturned earlier approval of three turbines, saying that earlier faulty background ambient noise data had been used, and that the turbines would exceed the town's noise standards. Source: KCBD Lubbock 3/3/07 [READ ARTICLE] Maine Today, 3/9/07 [READ ARTICLE]

LFAS Poised for More Widespread Deployment - NOAA is preparing to issue permits allowing expanded deployment of Low Frequency Active Sonar by the US Navy. For the past several years, the high-powered sonar, designed to detect "quiet" enemy submarines, has been limited to a small area of the West Pacific, as part of a settlement of a court challenge. Now, having completed a new round of environmental assessment, the Navy is preparing to use the system in most of the world's oceans, and to install the sonar on two new ships, in addition to the two already in use. Environmental advocates, including the NRDC, lead litigants in the suit that forced the reduced deployment pending further study, contend that the Navy has failed to show that more widespread deployment can be conducted safely. Sources: Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 7/11/07 [READ ARTICLE] NRDC Press Release, 7/13/07 [READ PRESS RELEASE] Seattle Post-Intelligencer Staff Blog, 7/12/07 [READ POST] AP/The Guardian, 7/12/07 [READ ARTICLE] Navy Perspective: Navy Admiral Letter to Editor, Post-Star, 7/17/07 [READ LETTER] Pacific Fleet Commander, in NavyCompass, 6/29/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Draft EIS Released for Hawaii Naval Training - The Navy has released a draft EIS that will, when finalized in late 2008, provide a framework naval training in Hawaiian waters, rather than assessing each training individually. The Navy has granted itself an exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act, pending completion of this and similar EIS's in other areas where sonar training takes place. Sources: Honolulu Advertiser, 7/27/07 [READ ARTICLE] ENS, 7/27/07 [READ ARTICLE] Navy Times, 7/28/07 [READ ARTICLE] KGMB, 7/27/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Sonar Study Shows Little Effect on Fish - A study in which fish were held in a cage and exposed to the sounds of low frequency active sonar has shown that salmonoid fish seem to be little affected by the sounds. After a week of sound exposure, no fish died, and there was no damage to the fishs' auditory system, though there was some presumably short-term loss in hearing sensitivity, and some increased swimming activity at the onset of the sounds. By contrast, a similar study by the same research team had shown long-term damage to ear hair cells when fish were exposed to seismic survey air guns. Source: Physorg.com, 7/5/07 [READ ARTICLE]
[See AEI Special Report: Active Sonars]

World Conservation Union Calls for Protecting Grey Whales from Low Level Noise - After the recommendations of its advisory panel were rejected by Sakhalin Energy, the World Conservation Union has voiced its concerns about the possible impacts of continued construction noise on the critically endangered Western Gray Whale population. “We are especially concerned that the company appears to have decided not to include thresholds for prolonged exposure to lower noise levels. Without more rigorous noise management and mitigation efforts on the part of Sakhalin Energy and other companies operating in the region, their activities may have significant long-term effects on gray whales attempting to feed in this area. Such a possibility is of particular concern with regard to pregnant females and females with calves.” The Western Gray Whale Advisory Panel recommended in April 2007 that Sakhalin Energy adopt dose-based approaches to managing noise from its construction activities. The panel said mitigation action should be taken when the level of broadband noise received at the edge of the feeding area exceeds 130 decibels for 90 minutes. It said that for every five decibel increase in noise level, the time that whales are exposed to the noise should be reduced by half. Similarly, for every five decibel decrease in noise level, exposure time could be increased. So, for example, sounds received at the edge of the feeding area at 125 decibels could continue for 180 minutes. The panel advised that time limits should be based on a daily schedule, so that exposure to 130 decibels for 90 minutes in total should only occur once in 24 hours. As far as we know at AEI, this is the first time that such dose-based noise standards have been proposed. Source: ScienceDaily, 7/25/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Grey Whales Missing at Only Summer Feeding Ground - The remnants of the Western grey whale population has gone temporarily missing at its only summer feeding grounds, off Sakhalin Island on Russia's North Pacific coast. Oil and gas development there has been a cause of deep concern for several years, with slight adjustments in development plans keeping the core feeding area free of construction. Noise from construction, however, does travel into the feeding grounds, and this week conflicting reports have emerged from the field. The World Wildlife Fund claims that construction noise, permitted to last four hours at a time, continued uninterrupted for 48 hours, with the whales apparently gone after that time. Industry representatives claim that noise standards were not exceeded, and that their observers have seen no ill effects on whales; they shared their monitoring data with the WWF and other groups after concerns were raised. Construction schedules are pressed due to the late melt-out of ice in the area. Sources: New Scientist, 7/3/07 [READ ARTICLE] Bloomberg, 7/10/07 [READ ARTICLE] WWF Press Release, 7/3/07 [READ PRESS RELEASE] Reuters/Scientific American, 7/3/07 [READ ARTICLE]

National Parks "Littered" with Noise - "Noise is to the soundscape as litter is to the landscape," says Les Bloomberg, executive director of the Noise Pollution Clearinghouse. "For 100 years, we have been filling the landscape with waste, primarily from combustion engines, and now there is no place to escape it. The parks should be our last refuge, the places we can go to avoid noise." The Acoustical Society of America recently met in Salt Lake City, where they talked about noise in national parks. And what they heard is not good. Grand Canyon visitors can expect to hear aircraft every two minutes, from 8 a.m to 6 p.m. from spring to fall, about 132,000 overflights a year. In about 90 percent of the park, tour planes and helicopters can be heard 100 percent of the time, said Dick Hingson, who has been monitoring the sound there for years. The only place you can't hear them, he said, is deep in the canyon on the Colorado River, in the rapids. Noise researcher Skip Ambrose said the clamor doesn't stop at the Grand Canyon. It continues throughout Utah's five national parks - Arches, Canyonlands, Zion, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef. "There's times when you can't hear the natural sounds," said Ambrose, a biologist who measured noise for the Park Service from Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon and everywhere in between before retiring in the past year. He can't name a single spot in Utah's national parks free of sound litter. He hasn't measured one. And, given the East-to-West overflights of commercial jets, he doubts there are any, even with the many remote places within Utah's boundaries. Mia Monroe, manager of Muir Woods National Park near San Francisco, has noticed that even as people go to the wilds to get away from the hustle and bustle of city life, they bring their noises with them. ‘‘Most digital cameras are not quiet,’’ she notes. ‘‘Strollers can be quite noisy. Big vehicles have ‘backup beepers,’ and you hear lots of planes overhead. Back when I started here, cars didn’t make those funny little beeps when the doors lock. It all adds up.’’ Bloomberg has put together ten suggestions to foster visitors' ability to have quiet experiences in National Parks, including establishing quiet campgrounds (no generators or boomboxes), using he quietest possible equipment, such as lawnmowers, air buffers around parks, and more enforcement of existing noise standards. Salt Lake Tribune, 6/24/07 [READ ARTICLE] LiveScience.com, 5/29/07 [READ ARTICLE] Sacramento Bee/Altoona Mirror, 5/27/07 [READ ARTICLE]
Related: Great article in Audubon on Natural quiet in parks - [READ ARTICLE]

Curiosity Lures the Cat: Cell Phone Tones Protecting Villages - Leopards often enter the western Indian village of Gujarat, looking for an easy meal of goat, cow, or, occasionally, a villager. Villagers there are now using "clucking," "bleating," and "mooing" ring tones to distract the big cats and lure them away from human settlements. By attaching a mobile phone to a cage and playing one of the animal ring tones continuously, local forest guards can lure the leopard into the trap without harm. "The moos of a cow or bleating of a goat from the phone has proved effective," D. Vasani, a senior forest official, told the Reuters news service. Since the new ring tone method was introduced a month ago, guards have captured five leopards and released them successfully back into forests. Source: National Geographic News, 6/5/07 [READ ARTICLE]

Iraq Veterans Face "Epidemic" of Hearing Loss - Sixty percent of soldiers who return from Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from noise-induced hearing loss, and 49 percent also suffer from tinnitus, a potentially debilitating ringing of the ears, according to military audiology reports. While trained in the use of hearing protection, in many cases the need to hear comrades or citizens makes their use impractical. Encounters with IEDs, which obviously occur unexpectedly, also take their toll: "We rolled over a bomb," said one soldier. "I just remember being knocked out and then coming to and seeing smoke. I guess my commanding officer was screaming, 'Conley, are you OK?' over and over, but I couldn't hear anything." The blast caused his ears to bleed, he said, but after a few days of silence his hearing came back. He said he lost his hearing six times in Iraq, but that wasn't a lot compared with others in his platoon. "There are 19 guys in my platoon," the soldier said "One lost (his hearing) 17 times. You don't think it's a big deal because it happens to everyone. They tell us to suck it up, so we do." The long-term effects are a surprise to many soldiers. "It's not exactly the first thing that pops into your head when you enlist," said one. "But you can't bail because you want to keep your hearing." Source: Mineral Wells Index/Eagle-Tribune, 4/30/07 [READ ARTICLE]
RELATED: Warning Sirens Threaten Israeli Town's Hearing - The warning sirens alerting Sderot residents of incoming Qassam rockets and the accompanying barrages are taking a heavy toll on the residents' ability to hear. Rina Mor Yosef used to complain about the volume of the alarm system for Qassam rockets. Now, four years after it was installed, she can hear it only when her hearing aid is turned on. Mor Yosef, whose hearing was damaged by the proximity of the loudspeakers to her home, says the problem is not hers alone. A few months ago, a neighbor with a newborn baby became frustrated and disconnected the speakers near their homes. The Home Front Command moved it to the roof of a synagogue on the same street. "I knew something was happening to me, but in the past year it's gotten impossible: I've sat with people and had entire sentences disappear. The doctor immediately set me straight. At first I refused to accept it. Why should a 45-year-old woman have a hearing aid?" Mor Yosef says. The Bon Ton speech and hearing clinic, which was established three years ago in the center of Sderot, receives patient referrals from the city's health maintenance organizations. Clinic director Orna Horovitch says that dozens of people have suffered hearing loss as a consequence of the Qassam barrages on the city but cannot afford a hearing aid. Source: Haaretz.com, 5/18/07 [READ ARTICLE]

Noisy Cities Spur Birds to Sing at Night - A recent study in the UK has linked increases in night-time bird calls with daytime noise levels in cities. "You generally only seem to hear nocturnal singing in cities," explained Richard Fuller, one of the study's co-authors. While such urban night-time birdcalls had longed been assumed to be caused by lighting "tricking" birds into thinking it was daytime, the cause and effect had never been investigated. The study found that while there was a small effect associated with light levels, a far larger factor was noise levels. "The birds appear to be singing at night to avoid competition with high noise levels caused by our cities during the day," Dr. Fuller suggested. "Noise levels were 10 times higher in places where birds were singing at night." Source: BBC, 4/25/07 [READ ARTICLE] The Guardian, 4/25/07 [READ ARTICLE]