Statutory nuisance noise

The Environmental Protection Act (EPA), 1991, which subsumes previous acts such as the alkali act (1906), and the clean air act (1956/68). The act covers air pollution, noise, and other matters causing a statutory nuisance. 

A statutory nuisance is the emission of smoke, fumes, gases, dust, steam, smells, other effluvia and noise at a level which is judg to be prejudicial to health of, or a nuisance to, the community or anyone living in it. The legal interpretation is somewhat flexible. 

In the context of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, noise or vibration is a statutory nuisance if it is prejudicial to health or is a nuisance. However,... 

This Act extended the statutory nuisance provision of the Environmental Protection Act 1990 to cover noise from vehicles, machinery or equipment in the streets. The definition of equipment includes musical instruments but the most common use of this power is to deal with car alarms and house intruder alarms being activated for no apparent reason and which then continue to cause a nuisance for more than one hour. 

Noise can cause a serious nuisance in the neighbourhood of a process plant. Care needs to be taken when selecting and specifying equipment such as compressors, air-cooler fans, induced and forced draught fans for furnaces, and other noisy plant. Excessive noise can also be generated when venting through steam and other relief valves, and from flare stacks. Such equipment should be fitted with silencers. Vendors specifications should be checked to ensure that equipment complies with statutory noise levels both for the protection of employees (see Chapter 9), as well as for noise pollution considerations. Noisy equipment should, as far as practicable, be sited well away from the site boundary. Earth banks and screens of trees can be used to reduce the noise level perceived outside the site. 

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