Noise and Air Quality Impact Assessment W D Milligan 31 July 2014

                                                                      MWA Environmental




2.0 NOISE IMPACT ASSESSMENT
2.1 EXISTING NOISE LEVELS

To characterise the current ambient noise levels at the locality a noise datalogger
was located on the site for an eight day period in February 2012.

The noise datalogger location is shown on Figure 5.

Weather conditions during the monitoring period were variable and included heavy
rainfall and elevated wind speeds on some days. The weather affected periods were
removed from the ambient noise monitoring data prior to analysis. It was also noted
during site inspections that insect (cicada) noise was evident at some locations on
the site. Whilst the noise datalogger was installed at a location that was not affected
by significant insect noise during the day period, the monitoring data was clearly
affected by insect noise during the evening period. Consideration has been given to
this seasonal insect influence in the derivation of background noise levels.

Table 1 below provides the minimum, maximum and average statistical noise levels
recorded at the noise datalogger location.

Table 1: Recorded Range of Datalogger Recorded Noise Levels – dB(A)
         17 to 24 February 2012 – 15-Minute Samples

                                          RECORDED STATISTICAL NOISE LEVELS - dBA
 PARAMETER             PERIOD
                                           MINIMUM          MAXIMUM          AVERAGE
                  Daytime (7am-6pm)          45.7             68.8              60.5
      L1         Evening (6pm-10pm)          48.3             58.5              52.4
                 Nighttime (10pm-7am)        35.0             60.0              49.6
                  Daytime (7am-6pm)          41.5             65.6              55.5
      L10        Evening (6pm-10pm)          46.1             56.9              50.8
                 Nighttime (10pm-7am)        31.9             55.4              46.2
                  Daytime (7am-6pm)          34.0             55.8              45.2
      L90        Evening (6pm-10pm)          42.2             52.5              46.3
                 Nighttime (10pm-7am)        29.4             48.5              40.0
                  Daytime (7am-6pm)          40.0             61.4              53.0
      Leq        Evening (6pm-10pm)          45.0             55.5              48.8
                 Nighttime (10pm-7am)        31.3             52.7              44.2



The complete results from the noise datalogger location are presented as a trace of
noise level versus time for the statistical noise level descriptors L1, L10, L90 and Leq in
Attachment 1. The traces presented in Attachment 1 are of the data filtered to
exclude weather and extraneous influences.




Ridgewood 12-002                            4                                 31 July 2014