Music Monitored : Kinks Audible but Was Band Too Loud?

The Kinks concert at Costa Mesa’s Pacific Amphitheatre was easily audible in a nearby residential area Wednesday night, but a county health worker monitoring sound levels there said it was too early to tell whether noise standards were being violated.

“It’s clearly audible, as you can tell, but it’s too early to tell whether it’s a violation,” said Jeff Benedict, a supervising environmental health sanitarian with the county Health Care Agency. He was stationed at Presidio Square, a neighborhood bordering the outdoor concert hall that has been the subject of a lawsuit by nearby residents.

Wednesday night was the first of four evenings on which noise in the area will be monitored under an order by a Superior Court judge. Next Thursday, officials will monitor a concert by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers; they will return on June 12 and 13 for Huey Lewis and the News. Benedict said he could not give details of the sound measurements he was taking or the readings he was getting. He said the information would be presented to the judge presiding over the residents’ lawsuit.

Jim Huston, assistant director of environmental health for the county, said earlier Wednesday that noise levels in and around the amphitheater would be measured on a per-hour, cumulative basis.

The county’s noise law states that sound levels cannot exceed 50 decibels for 30 minutes, 55 decibels for 15 minutes, 60 decibels for 5 minutes and 65 decibels for 1 minute, he said.

Furthermore, the noise level can at no time exceed 70 decibels, Huston said.

Huston was not present for the concert Wednesday night, but three noise technicians were.

Tina Pollini, who said she was speaking on behalf of Pacific Amphitheatre, refused admission to a reporter. She said technicians monitoring noise inside could not be interviewed until the judge sees the results.

Superior Court Judge Gary L. Taylor ordered the sound monitoring last week after noise complaints by people living near the amphitheater. Taylor also granted county noise experts the authority to order amphitheater officials to decrease the volume.

Huston said he didn’t expect requests for amphitheater officials to decrease volume at Wednesday’s concert.

On Tuesday the 4th District Court of Appeal in Santa Ana ruled against a request by Ned West Inc., the amphitheater operators, to postpone enforcement of the noise restrictions.

Amphitheater Manager Stephen M. Redfearn, in a sworn statement submitted to the appellate justices in Santa Ana, said it would be difficult to obey the entire court order because six to 10 people would be needed to comply with the sound-reduction order. Moreover, he said, most performers bring their own sound equipment.

With the data obtained from monitoring the Kinks concert and later events, experts hope to determine how much noise in surrounding neighborhoods is caused by concerts and whether the amphitheater is violating county noise limits.

The Kinks, an English rock band, opened the amphitheater’s summer concert season.