Noise regulation

Noise regulation includes statutes or guidelines relating to sound transmission established by national, state or provincial and municipal levels of government. After a watershed passage of the United States Noise Control Act of 1972[1], the program was abandoned at the federal level, under President Ronald Reagan, in 1981 and the issue was left to local and state governments. Although the UK and Japan enacted national laws in 1960 and 1967 respectively, these laws were not at all comprehensive or fully enforceable as to address (a) generally rising ambient noise (b) enforceable numerical source limits on aircraft and motor vehicles or (c) comprehensive directives to local government.

History of noise regulation

Sound level meter, a basic tool in measuring sound.In the 1960s and earlier, few people recognized that citizens might be entitled to be protected from adverse sound level exposure. Most concerted actions consisted of citizens groups organized to oppose a specific highway or airport, and occasionally a nuisance lawsuit would arise. Things in the United States changed rapidly with passage of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) in 1969 and the Noise Pollution and Abatement Act (more commonly called the Noise Control Act (NCA) of 1972)[1]. Passage of the NCA was remarkable with the lack of historic organized citizen concern; however, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had testified before congress that 30 million Americans are exposed to non-occupational noise high enough to cause hearing loss and 44 million Americans live in homes impacted by aircraft or highway noise[2]. NEPA requires all federally funded major actions to be analyzed for all physical environmental impacts including noise pollution, and the NCA directed the EPA to promulgate regulations for a host of noise emissions.
Dr. Paul Herman wrote the first comprehensive noise codes in 1975 for Portland, Oregon with funding from the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and HUD (Housing and Urban Development). The Portland Noise Code became the basis for most other ordinances for major US and Canadian metropolitan regions.[16]
Most city ordinances prohibit sound above a threshold intensity from trespassing over property line at night, typically between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., and during the day restricts it to a higher sound level; however, enforcement is uneven. Many municipalities do not follow up on complaints. Even where a municipality has an enforcement office, it may only be willing to issue warnings, since taking offenders to court is expensive.
The notable exception to this rule is the City of Portland Oregon which has instituted an aggressive protection for its citizens with fines reaching as high at $5000 per infraction, with the ability to cite a responsible noise violator multiple times in a single day. Japan actually passed the first national noise control act, but its scope was much more limited than the U.S. law, addressing mainly workplace and construction noise[3].

Initially these laws had a significant effect on thoughtful study of transportation programs and also federally funded housing programs in the United States. They also gave states and cities an impetus to consider environmental noise in their planning and zoning decisions, and led to a host of statutes below the federal level. Awareness of the need for noise control was rising; in fact, by 1973 a national poll of 60,000 U.S. residents found that sixty percent of people considered street noise to have a “disturbing, harmful or dangerous” impact[4]. This trend continued strongly throughout the 1970s in the U.S. with about half of the states and hundreds of cities passing substantive noise control laws; however noise regulation subsided sharply in 1981, when congress ended funding for the NCA. What made matters worse is that the EPA had pre-empted lower levels of government from regulating sources, so that states could not legislate in the area, for example, of truck noise emissions. Thus, in areas where the federal government had failed to promulgate clear standards (such as aircraft noise), no further progress could be made except by the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), who has an inherent conflict of interest regarding noise regulation.

Nevertheless some states continued to act; specifically, California, carried out an ambitious plan to require its cities to establish a “Noise Element of the General Plan”, which provides guidance for land planning decisions to minimize noise impacts on the public. Many cities throughout the U.S. also have a noise ordinance, which states the allowable sound level which can cross property lines; these ordinances can be enforced with local police powers.

The following European countries emulated the U.S. national law, enacting national statutes governing noise: Netherlands (1979), France (1985), Spain (1993), Denmark (1994). In some cases unlegislated innovations have led to quieter products exceeding legal mandates (for example, hybrid vehicles or best available technology in washing machines). In any case, the legacy of the NCA has transformed irreversibly the way people think about noise and the intrinsic right to be protected from adverse sound levels.