Redondo Refuses to Ease Noise Curbs at Edison Plant

After hearing more than three hours of expert testimony and impassioned pleas, the Redondo Beach City Council decided not to change a noise ordinance to accommodate Southern California Edison’s electric power plant, one of the city’s principal sources of noise.

A change proposed by company officials, after months of negotiations with City Atty. Gordon Phillips, would have established an average noise limit of 64 decibels at the power plant’s borders.

Under the current ordinance, adopted 12 years ago, noise levels are measured at a complaining resident’s home, with legal limits set at 50 decibels during the day and 45 at night. (Fifty decibels is about the noise level of a quiet restaurant.) The city staff, including City Prosecutor John Slawson, favored the change, saying the existing law is unenforceable.

Council members at Tuesday night’s meeting said they were impressed with Edison’s efforts to identify sources of noise at the giant plant and dampen them, but finally voted unanimously to wait at least six months before giving further consideration to the Edison proposal.

During that time, Edison is to complete efforts to mitigate noise from generators, fans and other equipment that nearby neighbors say disturbs their sleep and their daytime activities.

The city administration was directed to set up continuing tests to determine how a 64-decibel limit at the plant’s borders translates into noise heard at residents’ homes.

Tom O’Leary, who said he has been fighting Edison for 13 years over noise generated at the plant, questioned whether setting a limit at the plant would ensure a tolerable level at homes in the area.

Edison’s experts have an “impressive vocabulary, but all I’ve heard are opinions and projections with no facts,” he said. “It can be 64 decibels at Edison but above 50 at my home.” He has lived since 1962 in the 500 block of North Guadalupe Avenue, which is several blocks from the plant.

O’Leary, echoed by other speakers, urged the council “not to change the law to fit Edison. Don’t let this giant utility run this city.”

John Haddon, Edison’s district manager since 1976, said the firm has compiled a “hit list” of 28 noise sources in the plant and will complete sound-muffling measures in November.

When the project is completed, he said, “there will be a significant reduction, but you will still know that the plant is in Redondo Beach.” He said Edison will guarantee a 64-decibel noise limit at its plant boundary after Jan. 1.

Several experts for the city and the company contended Tuesday that measuring the average noise at the plant’s property line over a period of time, such as an hour, is the only workable system for determining compliance with legal noise limits.

Bruce Davies, a noise consultant hired by the city, said such a system eliminates weather factors and problems in determining ambient noise when measurements are taken at homes in response to complaints.

When responding to a complaint under the existing code, an enforcement officer takes a measurement that includes not only the offending noise but also noise from traffic, aircraft and other sources in the community. The experts said it is difficult to determine how much of the noise is coming from the plant.

City Prosecutor Slawson said such problems make the current noise ordinance virtually unenforceable. In the past eight years, Edison has been taken to court only once, he said, and the city lost the case in part because an employee failed to take the measurements properly.

“Our officers are no match for Edison experts,” Slawson said. “If we have to work with ambient noise levels, we will need our own experts, and the ordinance will still be difficult to enforce.” He said setting a definite decibel limit at Edison’s boundaries would make it easier to prosecute violations.

Commends Effort

Frank Bostrom, a member of an ad hoc noise committee set up to work with Edison, commended the company for making a “tremendous effort” to reduce noise levels at the plant. But he said the community needs more time to gauge the firm’s results before agreeing to new noise-compliance ideas based on unproven theories.

O’Leary recalled in an interview that noise mitigation measur s taken at the Edison plant in the mid-1970s kept noise at an acceptable level for about eight years.

Then, in 1986, the plant installed two new generating units. The result, O’Leary said, is “an industrial roar that is unchanging, undeviating, never ending.”