We Energies asks city to increase its sound limits

A request by We Energies to increase the maximum sound limits at its Port Washington power plant was endorsed by the city’s Plan Commission last month.

The recommendation, if approved by the Common Council, would allow the sound levels recorded in five spots around the plant to increase by 10 decibels, to levels of between 53 and 60 decibels.

The current levels were established in 2008, Bob Harris, the city’s director of planning and development, said.

The change, he said, is being sought because the sound levels include not just noise from the plant but the surrounding neighborhood.

“Over the past 20 years, since we first received the city’s conditional use grant, the neighborhood has drastically changed, from new developments to the nearby park,” We Energies spokesman Amy Jahns said. “All those changes to the neighborhood have created additional noise that gets picked up when sound measurements occur.

“The decibel increase request doesn’t mean the sound coming from our plant has changed, it is recognizing the sound near our facility has increased.”

Mark Jenske, an engineer with the power company, said, “Sixty decibels is still kind of quiet for an industrial location.”

He compared the sound level to “a general office where you might have conversational speech.”

Forty decibels would be like a quiet library and 50 decibels like the sound level of a private office, Jenske said.

Sound levels at the plant are measured on the north property line, at two locations on the west property line, at the southwest property line and at Rotary Park.

The measurements are to be made both when all the units at the plant are running at full capacity and when they are all off.

Harris noted that the city’s data center zoning allows 70 decibels at the property line and said a draft of the city’s new zoning code has a standard of 60 decibels when the business abuts a residential neighborhood.

The conditional use permit for the power plant was created when the utility converted the Port facility from a coal-fired plant to one fueled by natural gas.

Jenske told the commission that baseline testing is required by the Public Service Commission before any major projects at the plant are done and after the work is completed to ensure there isn’t a “meaningful difference.”

A public hearing on the proposed change will be held by the Common Council during its 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 17, meeting.

Aldermen are expected to vote on the proposed change at that meeting.