Evergreen Solar took two steps forward and one step back, and one potentially giant step just got off the ground, as the Barnum Road manufacturer continued working to remediate various noise problems in the past week. The company has a June 1 deadline based on an April 1 enforcement order from the Devens Enterprise Commission (DEC).
Despite Evergreen Solar’s efforts, Old Mill Road resident Janice Perry said at the May 12 Board of Health meeting, “It sounds like a train is going by, but the high-pitched, oscillating whine is gone. Now there’s this low rumbling.”
Since a May 7 open meeting between residents and officials from Evergreen Solar and DEC, some sound has worsened, says Evergreen Plant Manager Craig Core in a May 14 letter to DEC Land Use Administrator/Director Peter Lowitt. He explained that heavy-duty equipment was removing asphalt on May 5, which resulted in a crescendo of complaints. Beginning on May 12, however, Praxair, the company’s supplier of liquefied gas, began restricting deliveries to between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. The gas supplier is also looking into the feasibility of reducing the pump pressure that transfers the gas to the storage tanks, a measure that has been shown to reduce the noise. The company will determine if this can be done during the week of May 21. If the answer is positive, noise improvement will be immediate.
These measures follow others taken between April 6 and 13 to address a litany of complaints due to a number of loud, and in some cases continuous, noises.
Nashoba Associated Boards of Health Sanitarian Ira Grossman promised at the BOH meeting to continue working with enforcement official Michelle Delemarre at the state Department of Environmental Protection’s (DEP) Central Regional Office to stay apprised as conditions change. He explained that the noise guidelines of the DEC, the permitting authority that also serves the role of a town board of health, are more stringent than those of the DEP.
DEC noise consultant Doug Sheadel told Perry, “This topography [the marshy, sloping land between the company and Old Mill Road] is a worst-case scenario.” Grossman agreed, calling it “an amphitheater. Today it was like a freight train.”
On May 18, DEC announced the results of its May 12 request for proposals for a noise consultant to provide services to characterize the noise sources, and to propose mitigation measures. The winner was Modeling Specialties of Westford. Sheadel, who has done numerous sound studies at Evergreen Solar and Old Mill Road, and who wrote the enforcement order for DEC, works for the company.
“The consultant has been authorized to proceed in as expeditious a manner as possible,” concludes DEC’s May 18 press release.
