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State The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in Appendix G,Significant Effects states, "a project will normally have a simuficant effect on the environment if it will (p) increase substantially the ambient noise level for adjoining areas." Local San Joaquin County, in the Noise Element of the General Plan, sets forth policies related to community noise. Policy 1 states that an exterior noise level of 65 dBA L,_ or less is considered acceptable for residential development. While this policy specifically addresses the siting of new housin in noisy areas, it also establishes a benchmark of acceptability for residences in San oaquin County. Policy 4 states that development shall be planned and designed to minimize noise impacts on neighboring noise sensitive areas. These policies are the only local standards applicable to this project. B. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS In this section the potential long-term noise impacts resulting from operation of the transfer facility, and the short-term impacts resulting from construction of the facility are assessed. Operational Noise The renovated and expanded transfer facility would include a 120,000 sq. ft. metal AM building rising about 50 feet above a tipping /sorting floor, a new recycling area, acillar buil i s, and roadways. it the exception of re-sortedrecyclable materias, the majority of the public commercial disposa will occur inside the transfer building. Recyclable material will be sorted inside the building and dumped into bins located outside the south side of the building. Material to be transported to a landfill will be dumped into transfer trucks which will come through a tunnel at the northern end of the building. All vehicles will enter the facility at approximately the existing driveway location, commercial trucks and transfer trucks will exit onto Lovelace Road at the far western end of the new facility, and public vehicles will exit on to Lovelace Road near the center of the proposed facility. The San Joaquin County North County Sanitary Landfill site is similar to the proposed facility as far as the transfer building and recycling areas are concerned. The North County facility also includes a landfill which would not be a part of the proposed project. Noise levels were monitored at four locations around the transfer building to help estimate future project-generated noise levels. During the noise measurements, the large rolling doors were open and material was dumped from the tipping floor into the appropriate containers. A John Deere 624-E loader was operating on the tipping floor. There were public disposal activities during the noise measurements. Measurement Location 1 - 280 feet North of Transfer Building: Noise levels were monitored at this location for 15 minutes. Average noise levels ranged from 55 to 60 dBA during each of the three 5-minute intervals. The front loader, operating inside the building, generated maximum noise levels of 60 to 65 dBA; the backup beeper was audible but not measurable; and the banging and clanging associated with the disposal of materials generated maximum noise levels of typically 50 to 60 dBA, with the maximum level generated during the 15-minute period reaching 71 dBA. 11-3