Steps to Control Excess Noise

These comments describe the background information required and procedures to be followed to complain effectively and prevent excess noise from being emitted by industrial sites such as gravel pits and quarries. The same information and procedures are generally applicable if excess noise is being produced by other industries. The comments below are mainly concerned with excess noise being produced in rural areas, but similar advice applies to urban situations. Every attempt has been made to ensure that the information given and the procedures suggested are correct. Please inform Gravel Watch Ontario if any of these comments need to be revised. To obtain expert advice, contact a consultant or professional engineer specializing in acoustics and, if necessary, an environmental lawyer.

To control noise, you need to complain.  The good news is that if you have a genuine complaint about excessive noise from an aggregate operation the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) and the Ministry of the Environment (MOE) will apply the law and force the aggregate operator to reduce the noise levels to the legal limit. Several members of Gravel Watch Ontario have gone through the complaint process and the offending aggregate operators did in fact reduce the noise to the legal limit.

To complain effectively you need to:

Step 1: Check out the noise.  Know how to determine if the noise from the aggregate operation is exceeding the Ontario Noise Guideline limits and record the information required to make a complaint. For details see Measuring and recording the information needed to make a complaint.

Step 2: Who to complaint to.  Identify who needs to be contacted to officially register the complaint. For details see Persons or groups to be included when registering a complaint.

Step 3: How to complain.  Write and mail the letter of complaint to each person/group identified in Step 2. It is important to realize that the process of making the aggregate operator keep the noise to within the legal limits is complaint-driven. 

Step 4: Follow up.  Follow up the letters of complaint by contacting the appropriate MNR/MOE officials at regular intervals.  See also the MNR/MOE protocol for handling complaints.

Be prepared to repeat steps 1 to 4 on each occasion that the noise exceeds the legal limit. If past experience suggests (or the operator tells you) that the excess noise will continue for several days, make daily measurements (several times a day if possible) and after accumulating a number of violations send the next letter of complaint. The additional complaints are actually a very important part of the process of ensuring that the MNR/MOE takes your initial complaint seriously. Clearly, if the aggregate operator doesn’t seem to care that you have complained to him and to the MNR/MOE, and he continues to break the law it increases the likelihood that the process will move more quickly. The above procedure may seem like a lot of work, and it is. However, if you don’t make up your mind to be persistent until you get results you will be plagued with unreasonable (and illegal) amounts of noise for as long as the pit or quarry operates.