ANAHEIM : Sound Wall Appeal Falls On Deaf Ears

A philosophical question: If a train hurtles by your home and there’s no city official there to hear it, does it really make a sound?

To Karen Winkle and her Northfield Avenue neighbors, who live as close as 60 feet from the railroad tracks, the answer is a resounding yes.

Winkle has been unsuccessful in her efforts for the past year to get the city of Anaheim to help pay for a sound wall. The wall would protect her neighborhood from the daily clatter of as many as 50 passing trains--which whiz by at 40 m.p.h.

“People who come to my house . . . they duck under the table because they think it’s an earthquake,” said Winkle, who led a petition drive last year to get a sound wall.

Her cause received a boost this month when Rep. Jay Kim (R-Diamond Bar) expressed his “shock” at the city’s refusal to help purchase a sound wall.

Kim pointed out that the Orange County Transportation Authority will provide up to $400,000 in non-construction costs toward the wall, and that the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad will donate the right of way to build the sound buffer.

“I am very disappointed that the city of Anaheim found itself unable to show similar generosity to its own citizens,” Kim said in a July letter. “I hope the city will reconsider its decision.”

But Anaheim Mayor Tom Daly replied that the city lacks the resources to build a sound wall, which would cost from $1.5 million to $3 million. Even if the city could afford the wall, Daly said, it should be the responsibility of the railroad--not the city--to mitigate train noise.

“Apparently, he (Kim) feels the city has the financial means to solve a problem that is the direct result of the railroad line,” said Daly, who has toured the noise-plagued neighborhood.

Daly added that Santa Fe’s right-of-way “gift” didn’t “cost them a nickel.”

“Cities (historically) have not been the lead agency for constructing sound walls for the railroad,” Daly said.

However, the chances of the railroad company paying for the wall are remote, Daly pointed out. Federal law exempts the railroad from addressing environmental impacts caused by train traffic on a community, Daly said.

Meanwhile, Winkle and neighbors remain frustrated that the trains still run.