But neighbors vow to make their own noise
After weeks of debate, and over the objections of Harvard neighbors, the Devens Enterprise Commission (DEC) has agreed on a method for the long-term monitoring of noise from the Evergreen Solar plant on Barnum Road.
The vote on Dec. 3 by the 10-member commission was unanimous and followed weeks of highly technical public debates between Evergreen Solar, DEC, and third-party sound specialists, as well as threats of legal action by Harvard residents who feel the plant’s noise has deprived them of use of their property without compensation. If Evergreen Solar can show in coming months that noise is consistently at or below the levels set by the new protocol, DEC can decide that the company is in compliance and issue a permanent certificate of occupancy. The plant has been operating since opening in 2007 under a temporary certificate of occupancy.
The protocol—which was proposed by Evergreen Solar and amended by the DEC—is designed to segregate interference from noise sources at Devens and elsewhere from noise generated by the plant. Company and DEC sound engineers say noises from outside the plant increase the overall racket, and have skewed monitoring results to date. By installing monitors next to the plant’s loudest machinery—its cooling towers (known as reference location R7) and its fans for dispersing volatile organic compounds (R5)—the engineers claim to have calculated how loud the plant can get before its contribution to overall noise exceeds DEC limits.
The new protocol limits nighttime noise at R5 to 61 decibels and at R7 to 56 decibels. At these levels, say Evergreen Solar and DEC sound consultants, tests show that the plant does not cause noise levels in Harvard to rise more than 5 decibels above the nighttime level of 33 decibels that prevailed before the plant was built. The 38-decibel standard will be used at a monitoring location (known as R1) that is outside the plant, on residential property. The Harvard residents who live closest to Evergreen Solar are clearly angry with the decision, which they view as favoring the company at their expense. They especially object to the location of R1, which DEC used to set noise limits at the plant. Neighbors claim R1 is 190 feet farther from the Devens Enterprise Zone property line than the DEC’s own rules require. Because sound decreases with distance, residents argue, a monitor further from the plant lets Evergreen Solar make more noise than if the monitor were located on the boundary, which is in the middle of a stream.
“This is not the last of it,” Laura McGovern, co-owner of Dunroven Farm on Old Mill Road, said at the meeting. “We’re investigating our other options at this time,” said Janet Perry of Old Mill Road in a later phone interview.
Lawyers representing Janice and Charles Perry and the Berwind family of Ayer Road, who have threatened legal action if the protocol were adopted, did not respond to requests for comment.
In prepared remarks, DEC Land Use Administrator Peter Lowitt said his staff and sound consultant had carefully reviewed a “tremendous amount of data and information” before recommending the commission adapt the new protocol. “The DEC’s job is not to take sides on any issue,” he said, “but to take all information into consideration and apply the DEC rules and regulations in a fair and consistent manner.”
After months of complaints from neighbors and a notice of violation from the DEC, the commission passed a resolution in July that set out nine conditions which, if met, would bring the plant into compliance and clear the way for the DEC to issue a permanent certificate of occupancy. The DEC says Evergreen Solar has met all but three of the conditions. The company has yet to install permanent sound monitors and has failed to pass a worst-case scenario test to prove that when the factory is running at full tilt it adds no more than 5 decibels to noise levels in Harvard. Once those two conditions are met, Evergreen must prove it can stay within the limits set by the new protocol 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
