Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 15, 1995 TAG: 9504170032
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: TODD JACKSON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ROCKY MOUNT LENGTH: Medium
Acoustic expert Edward Crouchley walked to the witness stand Thursday with a black briefcase.
He sat down, popped it open and pulled out a microphone the size of a jumbo lollipop.
It was this instrument, Crouchley told a Franklin County judge, that he used to measure the industrial noise generated by Shredded Products - a Franklin County company that crushes junk cars and trucks and recycles the parts.
At issue during Thursday's trial was whether the noise coming from the company's operation constitutes a nuisance to surrounding residents under a provision in the Franklin County code.
The matter reached a courtroom after Scott Sutherland, who lives near the plant, filed a complaint with a county magistrate. That set up a public nuisance suit, with Commonwealth's Attorney Cliff Hapgood as prosecutor.
Hapgood first looked at state law governing noise problems, but found almost nothing to hang a court case on. So he decided to use the county's ordinance, which, in outlining eight different problems that could be considered a nuisance, never uses the word "noise." Hapgood decided to push the issue anyway, hoping a judge would fine the company or force it to remedy the situation.
But Crouchley, of Dayton, Ohio, testified for the defense that the noise he measured at nine points this month is not as loud as two people having a normal conversation.
Company executives testified that the mill that crushes cars and trucks - the machine that would cause the most noise - is totally enclosed and that other soundproofing steps were taken when the plant was built last year, such as planting a 50-foot buffer of pine trees around the property.
Sutherland and several other residents who live near the plant, off U.S. 220 outside Rocky Mount, testified Thursday that the noise has altered their way of life.
They compared the "beating," "banging," "clattering" and "rumbling" sounds they say they hear to many things:
"It's like a tractor-trailer bearing down on you," Walter Powell said.
"It sounds like 500 people with sledgehammers beating on an empty boxcar," Roger Shively said.
Sutherland said the noise wakes him up, sometimes as early as 6:40 a.m., and is so irritating that he has to leave his house and go somewhere else to concentrate.
In the end, however, General District Judge George Jones said the county's ordinance was "too arbitrary, too capricious. I find the company not guilty."
He said there was no way for anyone to know exactly what constitutes a noise nuisance under the county's regulation.
Hapgood said he plans to ask County Attorney Jim Jefferson if the county can tighten the ordinance.
Shredded Products is owned by Roanoke Electric Steel.
by CNB