LANDFILL NEIGHBORS SOUND OFF SOME SEE RED AT 'GREEN ENERGY' NOISE.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

SUN VALLEY - A ``good idea'' to convert methane gas from decomposing trash at Bradley Landfill into energy for city customers is causing headaches and sleepless nights for neighbors who complain the constant thrum of five large generators is driving them nuts.

Stuntwoman Darlene Williams says the monotonous ``hhhaaaaaaaa'' permeates the walls of her Allegheny Street house, although it's a half-mile from the dump.

``There's something about it, the pitch or something. ... It makes me crazy,'' she said.

The complaints put a damper of one of the larger so-called ``green energy'' experiments for the city Department of Water and Power, which is under increasing pressure from the mayor, City Council and environmentalists to invest in renewable energy sources.

DWP officials said the agency is negotiating a new power-purchase agreement with Waste Management Inc., which operates the landfill, but has concerns about the neighbors' complaints.

``It doesn't reflect well on the DWP if we sign a contract with a facility the community isn't happy with,'' said Mark Ward, DWP assistant director for system planning and projects. ``We would ask the provider to address those issues before we sign the contract.''

Waste Management officials have promised to quell the noise from the generators, each the size of a luxury sport utility vehicle. The company has hired an acoustic consultant and called in the German manufacturer to investigate why its generators are making more noise than they're supposed to.

Until a long-term solution is found, Waste Management has agreed to turn off the generators - which previously ran around the clock - from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m.

Company workers also have built a temporary 20-foot dirt berm and sound walls of plywood and insulation around the equipment, and they have plugged some noise vents with bales of hay.

Waste Management District Manager Doug Corcoran said he wants to resolve the problem rather than shut down the energy-generating program.

``It's such a good idea. You've got to do something with this landfill gas,'' he said. ``We really want to get it down to where a reasonable person will say, This is OK. I can live with this.''

The Bradley Landfill project is one of the first large-scale internal- combustion models in the region. It burns methane gas created from decomposing trash in the dump to fuel turbines that generate about 6.5 megawatts of electricity, enough for some 6,000 homes.

Landfill gas is normally burned off at a flare.

When Bradley operators flipped the switch on the new system in March, Allegheny Street homeowner Cathleen Doyle immediately heard what she calls ``horrible, intense, concentrated noise.''

She found herself sticking wads of wet toilet paper in her ears and burying her head under pillows in order to be able to sleep at night.

Corcoran initially told Doyle the noise couldn't possibly be coming from the landfill. Then he stood in her back yard, where she keeps horses, and realized how bad it was.

Corcoran maintains that the noise is within city regulations, which vary according to the type of equipment emitting the noise. However, no city agency has tested noise levels, despite complaints from the community.

Aides to City Councilwoman Wendy Greuel, who represents the area where the residents live, said they are working on the problem, but they had no comment on the situation.

The city code regulates the intensity of sound, but frequency or pitch from a relatively quiet sound can also annoy people, experts say.

``The human ear is really most troubled when it hears sounds at a particular frequency,'' said Jeff Eldredge, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, who hasn't visited the Sun Valley site. ``So if (the equipment) sent a particular frequency, it might be more annoying than the broad spectrum of sound.''

With some residents complaining about the noise, despite the company's efforts to muffle it, Corcoran said he has been considering insulating the metal containers that house the power generators.

``We think we're completely in the code, but we really want to be in harmony with the communities around us, and we're going at the extra steps beyond what we believe is in the code,'' Corcoran said. ``Basically we want our neighbors to like us.''

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Darlene Williams covers her horse's ears and neighbor Cathleen Doyle covers her own against Bradley Landfill noise.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(2 -- color) Dean Wise, operations managers at the Bradley Landfill, looks at hay bales and a soundwall installed to muffle generator noises bothering neighbors in a waste-to-energy project.

Andy Holzman/Staff Photographer