Noise Pollution Theatens Bellingham

Helen Brandt, Ph.D., is a Whatcom County writer and educational psychologist.

Tired of yard work? Daydreaming about a condo in Fairhaven? How about one of those nice new buildings along State Street? Do you know someone who is thinking of moving downtown?

Time has a way of diminishing the negatives and enhancing the charming memories of city life. But there were some good reasons why those who could afford to, moved to the suburbs. Noise was one reason. Who would want to live next to the screech of metal wheels on steel rails very time an elevated train passed the apartment?

In my Chicago neighborhood, garbage trucks in the alley beside the bedroom window woke me up early and poured diesel fumes through the partially open window. In graduate school, my rented room had a busy truck route on one side and train tracks on the other.

City planners extol the merits of infilling and increased population density: fewer car trips, shorter commutes to work, decreased costs for essential services and prevention of sprawl.

Unmentioned are the aversive noises that may be endured by hardy souls who move into condos and apartments downtown, in Fairhaven or along major traffic routes.

In downtown Bellingham, the early hours of the morning may find bar customers strolling the streets, hollering and having a good time. Quiet for uninterrupted sleep must wait until they go home.

Businesses do not want to inconvenience customers and may schedule outside maintenance such as pressure washing the façade for “off hours” such as Sunday morning.

One Chestnut Street apartment resident found that after the five-story building next door was completed he could then listen to sidewalk conversations while standing at his fourth floor window. Infilling with tall buildings increases the ability of sound to echo and travel.

Residents are treated to the routine sounds of emergency vehicle sirens, pneumatic nail drivers, semitrailers delivering materials and beeping utility trucks. Even some city buses have chosen to beep when they pick up passengers.

Railroad yards switch trains at all hours, with intermittent banging, thumping and grinding sounds. And trains sound their whistles day and night as they approach street crossings.

Condos adjacent to I-5 get the highway noise of tractor-trailer rigs, emergency vehicles and speeding cars in addition to their local street traffic.

Some people solve the noise problem by moving away. One Eldridge Avenue couple, tired of the traffic and rail yard noise is moving to some country acreage near Squalicum Mountain. Another family moved to a quiet hilltop cul-de-sac outside the city in order to escape the sounds of emergency vehicles, dump trucks and swarms of motorcycles heading up Chuckanut Drive.

Besides being an annoyance, noise has been found to have physical and psychological impacts. In Germany, children in the flight path of a new airport were compared to children in a quiet area. The children in the chronic airport noise group experienced modest but significant increases in blood pressure and significant increases in stress hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol) while the children in the quiet areas experienced no significant changes.

Elevated sound levels are associated with elevated adrenaline levels that trigger a narrowing of the blood vessels. Sound levels, such as typical roadway noise, are known to constrict arterial blood flow and lead to elevated blood pressure. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that high noise levels are accompanied by increased frequency of headaches, fatigue and stomach ulcers.

People exposed to environmental noise, which they cannot control, report a variety of negative feelings such as dissatisfaction, anger, annoyance, disappointment, withdrawal, depression, anxiety, distraction, agitation, exhaustion and helplessness.

Beyond emotions, noise can change behavior. For example, residents do not use their balconies, may close windows or turn up the TV or radio to louder levels. Noise levels above 80 decibels are associated with increased aggressive behavior. A provocation or pre-existing hostility combined with loud noise can move a person to act out aggressive impulses.

Nighttime noise disturbs sleep. After-effects include fatigue, depressed mood and decreased performance. After sleeping with noise, people are more inclined to be annoyed by noise the next day and more easily irritated by other people’s actions. After a week, people tend to adapt to nighttime noise and sleep through it; however, their heart rate, mood and performance continue to be affected.

Ah, but you say, aren’t there noise ordinances in the city? True, but much new infilling condo/apartment construction is in commercial or mixed use areas, which allow for noise that would otherwise be prohibited in a residential area. For example, a proposed 22-unit condominium, at North State and East Magnolia, would be in a commercially zoned area.

Short of prohibiting vehicles and machinery, how can a community deal with noise pollution?

One way to deal with noise is to include soundproofing materials in the outer walls of condos/apartments. Washington state building code now requires sound reduction in multi-dwelling-unit buildings. But this only pertains to reducing sound traveling between living units. There are no requirements for including soundproofing in the outer walls that face streets and railroad tracks. And, of course, buildings permitted before 2006 were not required to meet any sound reduction standards at all.

Thermal insulation in the outer walls provides some sound reduction. But in some cases there is no thermal insulation in the outside walls because the unit is already sufficiently heat efficient without it. Double-pane windows also muffle outside sounds.

A three-cylinder diesel truck engine running at 2,800 rpms outside your living room generates sound wave frequencies ranging from 22 Hertz to 11,000 Hertz (Hz). Some kinds of sound insulation materials will decrease the middle frequencies between 250-550 Hz but allow lower and higher frequencies to pass through. People react more to noise that is accompanied by vibrations and contains low frequencies (passing trains or heavy trucks) or is sudden (cars backfiring, gun shots).

A company in Oakland, Calif., (Glacier Bay) makes composite panels that have particles that vary in size, shape, weight and density. Because the composition is not uniform, the sheets can absorb a variety of sound frequencies. Glacier Bay makes 4.5 x 6 foot panels that cost $295.20 each.

Expensive new condos with great views might have sound reduction materials in the outer walls, since it would not add that much to the overall construction cost. After all, if the luxury unit costs $500,000 or more, the buyer might reasonably expect that the extra $6,000 for external sound reduction was built into the price. Or it may not have been. The best way to find out is to ask the architect or the owner of the building. Real estate agents might not really know whether there’s any sound insulation in the exterior walls.

There are professionals in the city permit department whose job is to review plans for new construction and determine whether the plans conform to code and legal requirements. One plan reviewer was asked if he had ever seen any plans that included sound insulation for the outside walls. He replied that he had never seen any. It is unlikely that most apartment/condo units have it.

Successfully selling citizens on the benefits of increased density and of downtown living will necessitate reducing some of the negatives. A good first step would be to encourage builders to include sound reduction materials in exterior walls of new condo and apartments adjacent to high traffic areas. Effective exterior sound insulation could become a selling point and increase marketability and profit for savvy developers.

Noise is one underlying reason behind citizens’ skeptical attitude toward growth and increasing population density in Bellingham. Ignoring the invisible pollutant doesn’t make it go away. §