MCU16/0079 Appendix F - Environmental Noise Imact Assessment

3.0       AMBIENT NOISE SURVEY

3.1      Instrumentation
The following equipment was used to record ambient noise levels at the subject site locale:

         Rion NC 73 Calibrator;
         Rion 29E Octave Band Sound Level Meter; and
         Rion NL 21 Environmental Noise Logger.

All instrumentation used in this assessment hold current calibration certificate from a certified NATA
calibration laboratory.

3.2     Unattended Background Measurement Methodology
A logger was located along the eastern site boundary. The microphone was in a free-field location
approximately 1.2m above ground. Refer to Figure 2 in Appendix A for the logger location.

Measurements were undertaken generally in accordance with Australian Standard AS1055 “Acoustics
– Measurement and description of environmental noise”.

The operation of the sound level measuring equipment was field calibrated before and after the
measurement session, with no significant drift from the reference signal recorded.

Based upon the Bureau of Meteorology Tewantin weather station data, weather conditions during the
survey were generally fine (with the exception of rain on Saturday and Sunday 4 – 5/06/2016), with a
temperature range of 8° – 28° C, and a relative humidity of 55 – 99 %.

3.3     Unattended Background Measurement Results
Table 1 below presents the results from the unattended measurement survey at the logger location.
From onsite observation, the acoustical environment of the area is comprised of urban hum, with
daytime and evening single events from vehicle movements along Pelican Street.

                                                  Assessment Background Noise Level, SPL dB(A)
Date                                              Day               Evening               Night
Saturday 4/06/2016                                44                  43                    42
Sunday 5/06/2016                                  41                  41                    38
Monday 6/06/2016                                  45                  42                    41
Tuesday 7/06/2016                                 44                  44                    34
Wednesday 8/06/2016                               43                  44                    40
Thursday 9/06/2016                                43                  43                    40
Rating Background Level (RBL)                     43                  43                    40
Minima Background Level (RBL)                     41                  41                    34


           Table 1: Measured LA90 background ambient noise levels at the logger location.

Due to the urban hum of the area, particularly during the night-time period and the potential for
mechanical plant to impact the measured levels we have adopted the minima background levels for
the “Background Creep” criterion rather than the calculated Rating Background Levels




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