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NOISE Environmental Setting The present noise environment in the vicinity of the proposed project is characterized by slightly higher noise levels than are typical of a rural environment. Noise producers include aircraft overflights, rail freight, farm equipment, truck and automotive traffic, residential noises, domestic animals, birds and wind. The most intrusive sources of noise are traffic on Mariposa and Austin Roads, rail traffic on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe (AT & SF) Railroad Line, and with flight operations associated with the Stockton Metropolitan Airport. Mariposa Road conveys a maximum of about 400 vehicles per hour (Holland 1987) . The project site is located outside of the 60 dB Community Noise Equiva- lent Level (CNEL) contour for the airport (Reese-Chambers Systems Consul- tants 1988) . Without these noise sources, sound levels at the projec site would otherwise be in the range from 40 to 45 dBA, typical of agri cultural areas. The "A" refers to the "A-weighting", a human respons factor added to the decibel level (see Appendix D) . The Noise Element of the San Joaquin County General Plan (1978) has as a goal "To prevent creation of new noise problems in developed and developing areas." As part of this goal , the County intends "To insure that new commercial and industrial projects are designed to minimize noise impacts on neighboring noise sensitive areas." Chapter 8 of the General Plan identifies Mariposa Road as a route with critical noise problems. Although the average daily traffic is less than 6,000 vehicles per day, based on the traffic analysis performed by Holland (1987) , truck traffic is heavy, averaging almost 500 trucks per day. The AT & SF rail line is also deemed a critical noise problem in the General Plan, as h there are more than 10 scheduled train passages per day along this line!. Proximity to this line has rendered portions of the site incompatible for residential uses. Prior studies of noise levels associated with train traffic indicate that a 60 dBA CNEL contour would likely extend betwee 750 and 1000 feet into the applicant's property (Reese-Chambers System Consultants 1988) . 3-67 101-37.R5 4/10/89