Moorpark OKs Funds to Monitor Truck Noise on Walnut Canyon Road

Teresa Cortez made Moorpark city officials an offer they could refuse and always did: spend the night at her mobile home and experience firsthand the constant rumble of passing trucks that keep her family awake.

This week, the City Council appropriated about $1,768 in an effort to help the Cortezes and other families on Walnut Canyon Road sleep better. The residents have been complaining about truck noise from the two-lane state road for at least 2 years.

The money will pay for a sound meter that deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department will begin using in December to check whether trucks are complying with state noise laws, Lt. Mike Brown said. The laws restrict the number of decibels of noise that trucks may emit, he said.

Trucks that fail to comply will be fined at least $112, said Jackie Rivas, a clerk for the Ventura Municipal Court. About 84% of the fines collected will go to the city, with the remainder going to the county to pay for processing the tickets, she said.

Moorpark will be one of a handful of cities in the state to monitor vehicle noise, said Sgt. Larry Blood of the California Highway Patrol’s communications and technical services division. A staffing shortage often prevents municipalities with the same problems from starting similar programs, Blood said.

“The problem in some places is that some of these trucks sound as loud as airplanes because the drivers use the engine brakes to slow down,” Blood said. “Some drivers take off their mufflers, and that’s the kind of thing that shakes the glass at 3 a.m. They can be very indignant if you tell them to follow the law.”

The sound meter is necessary in Moorpark because of the high volume of truck traffic through the city, Brown said. One resident counted 740 trucks between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Walnut Canyon Road alone, Brown said. The road, also known as California 23, is heavily used by trucks because a cement works and gravel pit are located there, Brown said.

The state Department of Transportation conducted two studies, one in November, 1987, and one in April, that determined that noisy trucks were commonplace on Walnut Canyon Road, Brown said. Officials then began investigating the feasibility of buying a sound meter and initiating a noise patrol, Brown said.