SLR-0282 31 October 2019 SLR Feedback on Noise Protocol 20191031.docx EPA Victoria GPO Box 4395 Melbourne Victoria 3001 Attention: Director of Policy and Regulation Dear Sir / Madam SLR Consulting Australia comments and feedback on the: Noise limit and assessment protocol for the control of noise from commercial, industrial and trade premises and entertainment venues GENERAL COMMENTS The following comments apply to the Protocol generally. 1. The scope of the document is not defined within the document. For this document to be stand alone, the definition of ‘noise sensitive area’ should be provided within the Protocol, and not just in the Environment Protection Regulations Exposure Draft and the Summary of proposed noise framework. If it is determined that the definitions should not be provided within the Protocol itself, the Protocol should, as a minimum, direct the reader to these documents for the definition. 2. The Protocol appears to have dropped the use of italics, inverted comments and / or capitalisation when using terms that have a specific technical meaning in the context of the document. This can lead to confusion as the terms typically also have common usage interpretations. Instances include: • Noise sensitive area. See (1). • Receiver distance. See (20)a and (20)c. • Background relevant area. See (21). We recommend that all terms with a specific technical meaning in the Protocol, and particularly those that use common English, be italicised or marked in some other way so that the reader knows to refer to the glossary for their meaning. 3. There is no ‘Agent of Change’ option for the assessment of commercial noise. Residential encroachment on existing commercial uses is an ongoing planning challenge, and as the Protocol currently stands, this matter must be dealt with in one of the following ways: • New residential development be constructed to ensure that the compliance status of the industry does not change. This may involve restrictions to areas where balconies and openable windows can be located, potentially resulting in poor amenity outcomes in areas other than acoustics. OR • Developers of new dwellings can be required to fund noise control for the business they are encroaching. In our experience this option is rarely implemented successfully. OR SLR Consulting Australia Pty Ltd Suite 2, 2 Domville Avenue Hawthorn VIC 3122 Australia T: +61 3 9249 9400 E: [email protected] www.slrconsulting.com ABN 29 001 584 612 SLR-0282 EPA Victoria SLR Ref: SLR Feedback on Noise Protocol SLR Consulting Australia comments and feedback on the: 20191031.docx Noise limit and assessment protocol for the control of noise from commercial, industrial Date: 31 October 2019 and trade premises and entertainment venues • New residential development can push existing businesses into non-compliance with the Protocol, and the onus is on the business to control their emissions. This is obviously an undesirable outcome for existing businesses. An ‘agent of change’ approach would potentially allow new residential development to address existing commercial noise emissions through façade upgrade treatments, as has been done for music noise and live venues. In our opinion this would be a desirable option for some apartment developments planned in mixed use zones or at commercial/industrial interfaces. It is also an approach currently adopted by some inner city Councils. 4. Noise from voice in commercial contexts, including patrons in outdoor areas and children in childcare centres, is not addressed in the Protocol. Both these sources are recognised as a source of intrusion and, to date, are assessed to informal, non-mandatory targets. While there is increasing agreement among consultants as to what these targets should be, there is nevertheless a need for them to formalised and supported in a document that has recognised status. Without this, they will continue to the subject of debate, and potentially inappropriate determinations, at VCAT and panel hearings. If EPA are likely to provide guidance on this issue via other avenues (eg. guidelines) that may also be appropriate. SLR COMMENTS ON PART 1: COMMERCIAL, INDUSTRIAL AND TRADE PREMISES The following comments apply to specific clauses within the Protocol. See also the SLR marked up version of the Protocol. Glossary ‘Sensitive room’ – Wording: the current wording suggests that all rooms within a kindergarten, childcare centre, primary school or secondary school is a sensitive room. 2.2 Zone Levels and Distance Adjusted Levels (7) It would be highly desirable if the zoning levels could be calculated directly from the VicPlan website or the EPA website. 3 Noise limits - Emergency equipment The Protocol requires assessment of fire pumps and smoke spill fans to SEPP N-1 limits, plus allowance, when this equipment is used for either testing or in an emergency. This is different to SEPP N-1, where noise from fire pumps was excluded from assessment during use in an emergency (see SEPP N-1, Part III, Clause 9). Smoke spill fans were not explicitly addressed in SEPP N-1 (which may have pre-dated these items of plant). However, our in-house approach has been to assess them to the same targets as fire pumps, given that they will be used under the same emergency conditions. Typically, fire pumps and smoke spill fans are tested during the day period, so in the past they have only needed to be designed to meet the SEPP N-1 day limit + 10 dB. The Protocol effectively requires the same equipment to meet the night noise limit + 5 dB. The decibel difference between complying with the SEPP N-1 limit during testing only (i.e. typically the day limit + 10 dB), and complying with the Protocol limits during emergency operation (i.e. potentially the night noise limit + 5 dB), is in the order of 16 dB. Page 2 SLR-0282 EPA Victoria SLR Ref: SLR Feedback on Noise Protocol SLR Consulting Australia comments and feedback on the: 20191031.docx Noise limit and assessment protocol for the control of noise from commercial, industrial Date: 31 October 2019 and trade premises and entertainment venues An excessive amount of noise control would be required to achieve a 16 dB noise reduction from both smoke spill fans and fire pumps. These works would translate into substantial costs on many projects, without, in our opinion, providing any practical increase in acoustic amenity. When these items of plant operate during an emergency, noise is unlikely to be an environmental concern. For the above reasons SLR recommends that fire pumps and smoke spill fans are not required to comply with the Protocol limits while they are used in an emergency. 4.1 Measurement of background level Clause (48) specifies that background noise levels can be determined with two 10 minute measurements that are representative of the periods when the commercial, industrial or trade premises operates. We recommend that some further guidance be provided here because the methodology can be interpreted very differently and could potentially result in different noise limits. For example, in the instance of an industry that operates all night, the 2 x10 min. background measurements could be conducted via any of the following approaches: • measuring between 10 pm to 11 pm or 6 am to 7 am, which would provide elevated background levels for a premises that operates during the night. • measuring at a time that is representative of the full night average – consultants would typically measure between midnight and 2 am to achieve this outcome. • Measuring at a time that represents the quietest periods at the premises e. g. typically between 2 am and 4 am. This approach is potentially more consistent with SEPP N-1, Schedule C, C3.2 where it is stated that the measurement is to be conducted “during the period of concern”. We recommend that the Protocol provide more clear guidance for measuring short term background noise data. 4.2 Determination of background level The Protocol does not provide clear guidance on how to treat data collected over multiple days or weeks. The data for individual day, evening and night periods needs to be arithmetically averaged, however beyond that, it is unclear whether: • The average measured level for multiple day, evening and nights are to be arithmetically averaged - this would be our interpretation of the Protocol, OR • The lowest day, evening and night average level is used to set limits. This may be reasonable for limited data sets (e.g. up to one week) but is potentially overly onerous for large data sets as it penalises long term noise logging. • The L90 of the average daily day, evening and night levels are calculated. Further guidance on this issue is important because the approach taken can substantially affect noise limits. There is currently inconsistency among consultants on this issue, and the Protocol is an opportunity to address this. Page 3 SLR-0282 EPA Victoria SLR Ref: SLR Feedback on Noise Protocol SLR Consulting Australia comments and feedback on the: 20191031.docx Noise limit and assessment protocol for the control of noise from commercial, industrial Date: 31 October 2019 and trade premises and entertainment venues 5 Specific variations for mines, quarries and landfills Clause (54) requires weather conditions ‘favourable to noise propagation’ to be assumed in modelling noise from mines, quarries and landfills. This approach is not consistent with the assessment of noise from other industry. See Clause (57)b. We also question the requirement to model conditions ‘favourable to noise propagation’ in situations where those conditions rarely occur, and/or do not occur when the noise from industry causes the greatest nuisance. B: Assessing noise from commercial, industrial and trade premises. 1. Assessment location, alternative assessment location and alternative assessment criteria. Clause (57)b requires measurements of noise from industry to be conducted at an alternative assessment location if atmospheric conditions affect the effective noise level.