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Peaker Plant Noise Test: All Quiet On The Ladera Front
By Matthew Cunningham | 05/12/08 | 10:13 PM EDT | 0 Comments
Readers are no doubt aware of the running conflict between San Diego Gas & Electric and Wellhead Electric Company and a NIMBY group called Ladera Hope. The source of the suburban warfare is a proposed peaker power plant off Antonio Parkway in Ladera Ranch. [A peaker power plant is one that activates during peak power usage periods to meet the extra demand].
For the record, experience has led by to be extremely skeptical of NIMBY group rhetoric. They tend to believe any information or speculation, no matter how half-baked, that undermines whatever project they're opposing -- and conversely to disbelieve any data, regardless of how sturdy, that undercuts the mythology of their movement.
This isn't the post to go into Ladera Hopes' scary litany of ruination, but you can read it here. judging by the tone of the website, the Ladera Hope leadership seems to be fomenting the fear that if the peaker plant is built, Ladera Ranch will suffer the same fate as Piedmont, Arizona in "The Andromeda Strain".
In any case, among the many allegations of risk leveled by Ladera Hope is that "Noise from jet-turbine generator and odor from the ammonia may be recurring public nuisances."
I was invited by SDG & E to attend a test at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, May 9, that would replicate the noise generated by the proposed peaker plant. This is the contraption used to generate the the test:
The noise machine emits a "pink noise" very much like that generate by the intake fans of the peaker plant, and is actually elevated here somewhat higher than the intakes would actually be.
At 100 feet from the noise machine, the decibels fluctuated between 69 and 70. At the second measuring station -- about 275 or 300 feet away -- the decibel level fluctuated between 58 and 60.
That was with nothing between you and the noise machine. The operative question is: would any Ladera Ranch resident actually here the peaker plant on those occasions when it goes one (generally in the early evening between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.)
In a word: No.
But don't take my word for it. I shot this video during the noise test. I started on Antonio Parkway at the foot of the drive way leading up to the peaker plant site, and walked up to where the noise machine was:
At the beginning, you hear traffic noise. As I walk up the driveway, the traffic noise dies away and then its pretty quiet. Not until I reached the top of the driveway and the noise machine was almost in sight could I actually hear it.
Down on Antonio street below the berm separating the noise machine from the street, you could not hear the noise test. If anyone living in Ladera Ranch was able to hear it, then it must have been Clark Kent.
Obviously, noise is just one of the concerns raised. And sarcasm aside, I don't think most Ladera Ranch residents are hysterics. They care about their children and their community, and want them to be safe.
But I do think the Ladera Hope leadership has tapped into that to stoke hysteria and is now so locked into it they cannot climb down. Rather than work out an agreement with SDG&E and Wellhead, the Ladera Hope leadership seems intent on fighting it out.
Too bad. One can generally get a better deal before the fight starts, then after losing the fight.
For the record, experience has led by to be extremely skeptical of NIMBY group rhetoric. They tend to believe any information or speculation, no matter how half-baked, that undermines whatever project they're opposing -- and conversely to disbelieve any data, regardless of how sturdy, that undercuts the mythology of their movement.
This isn't the post to go into Ladera Hopes' scary litany of ruination, but you can read it here. judging by the tone of the website, the Ladera Hope leadership seems to be fomenting the fear that if the peaker plant is built, Ladera Ranch will suffer the same fate as Piedmont, Arizona in "The Andromeda Strain".
In any case, among the many allegations of risk leveled by Ladera Hope is that "Noise from jet-turbine generator and odor from the ammonia may be recurring public nuisances."
I was invited by SDG & E to attend a test at 1:00 p.m. on Friday, May 9, that would replicate the noise generated by the proposed peaker plant. This is the contraption used to generate the the test:
The noise machine emits a "pink noise" very much like that generate by the intake fans of the peaker plant, and is actually elevated here somewhat higher than the intakes would actually be.
At 100 feet from the noise machine, the decibels fluctuated between 69 and 70. At the second measuring station -- about 275 or 300 feet away -- the decibel level fluctuated between 58 and 60.
That was with nothing between you and the noise machine. The operative question is: would any Ladera Ranch resident actually here the peaker plant on those occasions when it goes one (generally in the early evening between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m.)
In a word: No.
But don't take my word for it. I shot this video during the noise test. I started on Antonio Parkway at the foot of the drive way leading up to the peaker plant site, and walked up to where the noise machine was:
At the beginning, you hear traffic noise. As I walk up the driveway, the traffic noise dies away and then its pretty quiet. Not until I reached the top of the driveway and the noise machine was almost in sight could I actually hear it.
Down on Antonio street below the berm separating the noise machine from the street, you could not hear the noise test. If anyone living in Ladera Ranch was able to hear it, then it must have been Clark Kent.
Obviously, noise is just one of the concerns raised. And sarcasm aside, I don't think most Ladera Ranch residents are hysterics. They care about their children and their community, and want them to be safe.
But I do think the Ladera Hope leadership has tapped into that to stoke hysteria and is now so locked into it they cannot climb down. Rather than work out an agreement with SDG&E and Wellhead, the Ladera Hope leadership seems intent on fighting it out.
Too bad. One can generally get a better deal before the fight starts, then after losing the fight.
TAGS: Ladera Ranch, peaker plant
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0 Comments | Related Topics »Orange County (CA) | Ladera Peaker Plant | Politics Behind the Orange Curtain
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