Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
Kokua Line
Question: I live on Kaheka Street. Certain buildings have city trash pickup that comes around 6:30 a.m. I thought they weren't allowed to come that early. The sound is tremendous and reverberates upwards. Our trash pickup is scheduled late in the day to not disrupt many people who live in condos in this corridor. I can't be the only one awakened at 6:30 a.m. a couple times a week just to have trash pickup. Can you help? Trash trucks
noisy, but not
in violationAnswer: Actually, the cutoff time has been 6 a.m., because the noise standard for heavy vehicles, like garbage trucks, was much stricter before that time.
The state Department of Health's Noise, Radiation and Indoor Air Quality Branch used to handle complaints about garbage trucks picking up trash "too early" and making a racket.
But, for the most part, not anymore, said branch manager Russell Takata. "There's not much we can do" now, he said.
That's because the state Legislature passed a law this year repealing a host of "obsolete laws," including the chapter in the Hawaii Administrative Rules that dealt with "Vehicular Noise Control," he said.
Despite many people's complaints about too-early and too-noisy garbage pickups, apparently, in the overall picture, noisy vehicles in general were not considered enough of a problem to require monitoring, Takata said.
According to statistics, only a very small percentage of vehicles on the road exceeded the noise limits. So, "On a list of priorities, it turned out to be low priority," Takata said.
If a garbage truck were to go on property, as opposed to being on a public street, it could be considered "steady state noise," in which his inspectors might get involved, he said.
But generally, a lot of the complaints, especially from condominium neighborhoods, are about garbage trucks sitting on the street, with Dumpsters being rolled out to them.
Under a city ordinance, police are responsible for responding to "unreasonable noise" complaints, in which case, you're told to call 911. However, that gets to be "very subjective," Takata and police acknowledge, especially since police aren't equipped with noise monitors. Also, the noise-maker may be gone by the time police respond to such a non-emergency call.
The alternative is to ask your condominium board of directors or neighborhood board to contact the city or private refuse collectors to try to work out a solution.
In the meantime, Takata noted that his branch, which used to have 14 inspectors about five years ago (seven for noise, seven for radiation), is down five positions.
"We no longer have the assets to respond to everything," he said, so the branch is concentrating on life-and-death safety issues first, with "immediate hazard" and "hazardous potential" cases having high priority.
Thus, potential radiation problems are No. 1, followed by ventilation problems, such as in parking garages, he said. Noise complaints are of a lesser priority.
Mahalo
To Cissy at Foodland in Hawaii Kai. I had asked if she could go out and look for our non-English-speaking friends in the parking lot on Sept. 6. She was so nice in helping them. -- Terese
Mahalo
To the nice couple who treated my 14-year-old son and friend to popcorn and soda at the Koolau Theaters on Labor Day weekend. He was deeply touched by your kindness. -- Susan Starrett
Need help with problems? Call Kokua Line at 525-8686,
fax 525-6711, or write to P.O. Box 3080, Honolulu 96802.
Email to kokualine@starbulletin.com