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Alternative Energy Draft EA - NASA Visitor Center at Wallops Flight ...

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4.2.5 Noise<br />

No Action <strong>Altern<strong>at</strong>ive</strong><br />

Environmental Consequences<br />

Under the No Action <strong>Altern<strong>at</strong>ive</strong>, implement<strong>at</strong>ion of the <strong>Altern<strong>at</strong>ive</strong> <strong>Energy</strong> Project would not<br />

occur; therefore, there would be no additional increase in noise levels <strong>at</strong> WFF so no new impacts<br />

on humans or wildlife from noise would occur.<br />

Proposed Action<br />

Construction activities have the potential to gener<strong>at</strong>e temporary increases in noise levels from<br />

heavy equipment oper<strong>at</strong>ions such as grading, filling, pile driving, and wind turbine construction.<br />

<strong>NASA</strong> would comply with local noise ordinances and St<strong>at</strong>e and Federal standards and guidelines<br />

for potential impacts on humans caused by construction activities.<br />

OSHA limits noise exposure for workers to 115 dBA for a period of no longer than 15 minutes in<br />

an 8-hour work shift and to 90 dBA for an entire 8-hour shift. Workers near activities producing<br />

unsafe noise levels, both during construction and during maintenance or repair oper<strong>at</strong>ions after<br />

the turbines are oper<strong>at</strong>ional, would be required to wear hearing protection equipment. Therefore,<br />

impacts on the occup<strong>at</strong>ional health of construction workers as a result of construction noise are<br />

not expected.<br />

Modern wind turbines are generally quiet in oper<strong>at</strong>ion, and compared to the noise of road traffic,<br />

trains, aircraft and construction activities, to name but a few, the noise from wind turbines is very<br />

low (The Working Group on Wind Turbine Noise, 1996). Outside of homes th<strong>at</strong> are <strong>at</strong> least 300<br />

meters (980 feet) away from large wind turbines, the sound of a wind turbine gener<strong>at</strong>ing<br />

electricity is likely to be about the same level as noise from a flowing stream about 50 to 100<br />

meters (160 to 330 feet) away or the noise of leaves rustling in a gentle breeze. The noise level<br />

from a single wind turbine cre<strong>at</strong>es a sound pressure level of 50 to 60 dBA <strong>at</strong> a distance of 40<br />

meters (131 feet) from the turbine, which is about the same level as convers<strong>at</strong>ional speech. At a<br />

house 500 meters (1,640 feet) away, the equivalent sound pressure level would be 25 to 35 dBA<br />

when the wind is blowing from the turbine towards the house (The Working Group on Wind<br />

Turbine Noise, 1996). Additionally, the proposed 2.0 MW wind turbine would use a gener<strong>at</strong>or<br />

and gearbox with elements th<strong>at</strong> minimize noise.<br />

The closest facility occupied by personnel to the utility-scale wind turbines would be the U.S.<br />

Navy V-10/V-20 Complex, which is approxim<strong>at</strong>ely 120 meters (400 feet) east of the proposed<br />

northern wind turbine loc<strong>at</strong>ion. The two known loc<strong>at</strong>ions of the residential-scale wind turbines<br />

are proposed <strong>at</strong> the WFF <strong>Visitor</strong> <strong>Center</strong> and the Mainland guard st<strong>at</strong>ion. Employees and visitors<br />

to these facilities would hear the turbines while they were outside of the buildings, but they<br />

would not hear the turbines from inside the buildings. The noise from the residential-scale<br />

turbines, on windy days, may sound like a faint “whoosh.” However, most of the time the<br />

residential-scale turbines would not be heard by people standing outside of the <strong>Visitor</strong> <strong>Center</strong> or<br />

Mainland guard st<strong>at</strong>ion, so the impacts on those employees and visitors would be minor. Neither<br />

the public nor employees and visitors to WFF outside of <strong>Wallops</strong> Island would be able to hear<br />

the utility-scale wind turbines; therefore, there would be no impacts on either of these two groups<br />

from oper<strong>at</strong>ion of the wind turbines. Oper<strong>at</strong>ion of two utility-scale and the residential-scale wind<br />

turbines would result in highly localized, long-term, minor impacts on the surrounding<br />

environment from noise.<br />

106

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