Noise from the area of Gainesville’s new biomass plant has become the cause of complaints among nearby Whitney Mobile Home Park and Turkey Creek community residents.
Jane Greene lives in Whitney about one mile away from the recently opened plant. She said she gets woken up every night at 4 a.m. by “loud, booming crashes” radiating from the area.
“Here I am in my deep sleep, and next thing I know, I’m woken up by the noises,” said Greene, 75.
She made previous complaints to the city, but she said no one has been able to offer an explanation for the noise.
“Before they started building it, no one even came here to warn me. They didn’t tell us it was going to happen,” she said.
County Commissioner Robert “Hutch” Hutchinson said the county is conducting public works projects in the area, which could account for some of the noise.
“No regulatory approach will alleviate the noise, but I’ve lived in areas with loud noises and there are ways that neighbors can negotiate ways to operate the plant at times more suitable,” he said.
He called the issue a jurisdictional one — an issue neighbors must take up with the plant’s management.
“I believe if we do enough to point out this issue, the Gainesville Renewable Energy Center will do their best to alleviate the noise,” he said.
Activist Mark Venzke agreed.
“Hopefully, the complaints citizens have will continue to register with the managers of the GREC and with local environment authorities,” he said.
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 9/6/2013 under the headline "Biomass plant vicinity generates noise complaints"
