The non-stop, monotonous sound from industrial operations in Lavington continues to rattle some residents.
“It’s the general continuous sound that is produced by both Tolko and Pinnacle,” said Stephanie Hoffman, who has resorted to documenting the sounds every night with a handheld noise decibel reader.
On average, she gets a reading of 53, but some nights readings of 57 are reached.
“I stand at the very same spot on my driveway each time I take a reading,” said the mother of three young children, who dedicates three to four minutes at a time to her readings.
But she admits there is sometimes a seemingly silent night.
“There are some nights it’s very quiet and I go out and have gotten a reading of 45. That’s the most pleasant night time sound I could ever ask for.”
Coldstream is looking at a bylaw to regulate noise in the district.
Hoffman would like to retain a decibel level of 50 for night time, without the option for exemptions (which Coldstream was considering).
“I don’t think that would be fair to the community,” she said. “They are already operating well over 50 decibels every night.”
A 50 decibel reading is described as a quiet suburb, conversation at home and large electrical transformers at 100 feet, according to industrialnoisecontrol.com. Adversely a quiet rural area is shown at 30 decibels and upper 70s are described as annoyingly loud to some people.