In Hinsdale, Bob Brandys spent $5,000 to build a six-foot-high fence atop an eight-foot-high berm in hopes of keeping an interloper well known to local authorities off his property. The interloper usually enters through the windows; so he installed quadruple panes of glass.
In Lisle, the Morton Arboretum built a 40-foot-high berm after instructors complained they could no longer give lectures outside. In Elmhurst, they`ve marched. In Villa Park, they`ve moved. And just about everywhere else in Du Page County, they`ve stayed up nights wondering if it will ever go away.
The Illinois General Assembly even declared it a danger to physical and emotional health, an interference with legitimate business, a detriment to property values and a public nuisance. Yet it can`t be locked up and worse yet usually can`t be locked out. Millions have been spent trying.
It is noise.
Sleepless nights, many say, are not indigenous to just the O`Hare area;
it is not always airplane noise that makes suburban dwellers dream of the countryside when they do manage to nod off.
In Clarendon Hills, Anthony Kochanski got so sick of the shotgun blasts coming from the skeet shooters at the Hinsdale Golf Club he finally complained to the Village Board. When told there was nothing they could do, he said he called the State`s Attorney`s Office. When told the same thing, he called the Environmental Protection Agency. He finally filed a complaint in February, 1988, with the Illinois Pollution Control Board. Fifteen months later, he still hasn`t received a response.
”I have lived in the area since 1981, and I basically put up with that noise for six years before I blew my top,” said Kochanski, who lives two thirds of a mile away from the golf course. ”I don`t know whether you`re familiar with blasting like this, but it gets pretty obnoxious at times.”
Kochanski`s problem is not unusual, said Greg Zak, noise technical adviser for the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. Most municipal-ities in Illinois do not have noise ordinances that apply to residential areas, and those that do are rarely able to enforce them. In at least one suburb, conversing with one`s neighbor is often against the law unless both people are standing in the same yard.
Noise regulations, ”probably the most comprehensive and complex in the nation,” have been adopted by the General Assembly at the state level, said Zak, and for a time they worked. But that was before the Reagan administration cut federal funds that eliminated virtually the noise division of the IEPA.
In one day, the staff of investigators, who prior to 1981 would handle complaints for people such as Kochanski, went from 20 to zero. Zak is the whole department, and his primary duty is to make sure the EPA complies with noise regulations during its superfund hazardous waste cleanups. He literally does not have time to file complaints on behalf of the state; so he spends most of his time giving advice.
”I tell people I get 200 complaints a year,” said Zak. ”If I tried to investigate, I could help maybe 10. . . . If we are really to handle the problem, I would go back to 1981 when we had 20 people. That is what it really takes.”
Complaints range from planes to trains to guns to air conditioners. And with the ongoing building boom, not to mention extensive road construction, much of the Du Page populace is being subjected to the din of heavy machinery. But by far the most common complaint, Zak said, is the noise generated by industrial fans.
In Elmhurst, residents who live by the Elmhurst-Chicago Stone Co. quarry were so dismayed by the noise emitted by a 340-horsepower exhaust fan that last September they marched in protest. The quarry`s owners finally agreed to replace it with a smaller model, but residents as recently as early May complained the noise from other quarry sources is as bad as ever.
”Last night my wife complained about it again from 10:30 to 1,” said Frank Thomas, who lives near the quarry. ”The blasting goes on in the afternoon from about 1 to 3 and seems to be worse than it was before.” A local alderman equates the blasting to an earthquake.
While the quarry blasting is a form of intermittent noise, Brandys must deal with the continuous roar of traffic. The noise on his back porch, which is little more than 100 feet from the Tri-State Tollway in Hinsdale, was measured one recent afternoon, even with the berm, at between 75 and 80 decibels. Brandys described this as the equivalent of a very loud
conversation.
That is probably not high enough to cause hearing loss, according to Edward Hermann, professor emeritus at the University of Illinois School of Public Health who has studied the medical effects of noise for more than 30 years. Noises measured at between 75 and 80 decibels, he said, are usually simply an irritation. Slightly louder noises, however, can gradually impair one`s ability to hear and could cause other serious health problems.
”Some of the studies show there is chronic hypertension or high blood pressure associated with exposure to excessive noise (over 90 decibels),” he said. ”I tend to feel there is enough of an association to warrant more study, and the probability is pretty good on them.”
The United States Environmental Protection Agency`s Office of Noise Abatement and Control points to everything from heart disease to ulcers to headaches to reading disabilities as byproducts of incessant noise.
”If you are in a continuous noise field like a machine shop where there is repeated hammering or something like a printing press and the person next to you at about 18 inches away from your ear has to shout to be heard,” he said, ”the level is usually over 90 decibels.”
A 747 jetliner about four miles after take-off, as measured from the ground, emits about 100 decibels for a very short period by comparison, according to Tom Connor, manager of the analysis and evaluation branch of the Federal Aviation Administration`s Office of the Environment.
Many of the more than 20 million people the EPA estimates are exposed daily to noise that is permanently damaging probably do not even realize it, said Bob Brandys` wife, Gail, who is director of training and technical services for the couple`s business, Occupational and Environmental Health Services Inc. The firm offers consultation on environmental health issues.
”The impact is not quite as tangible” as it is with many other types of health hazards, she said. ”The loss of hearing is very gradual over a long period of time. It is not like you are well one day and sick the next.”
One of the reasons Reagan got rid of noise regulations, said Bob Brandys, is because noise is not considered a health problem. ”Sure it`s noisy and it`s hard to communicate. So what?” he said, imitating the common response.
”You lose your hearing, get a hearing aid.
”Yes, I think it causes stress. Yes, I think it causes sleep disturbances. I know it disturbs sleep. I live here.”
