3           NOISE

3.1                Monitoring Requirement

3.1.1                In accordance with the EM&A Manual, Leq (30min) monitoring is conducted at least once a week when there are Project-related construction activities being undertaken within a radius of 300 m from the monitoring stations. The monitoring is conducted during the construction phase between 0700 and 1900 on normal weekdays at the designated monitoring locations.

3.2                Monitoring Equipment

3.2.1                As referred to the requirements of the Technical Memorandum (TM) issued under the NCO, the sound level meters in compliance with the International Electro technical Commission Publications 651: 1979 (Type 1) and 804: 1985 (Type 1) specifications should be used for carrying out the noise monitoring. Immediately prior to and following each noise measurement, the accuracy of the sound level meter should be checked using an acoustic calibrator generating a known sound pressure level at a known frequency. The measurements may be accepted as valid only if the difference between calibration levels obtained before and after the noise measurement is less than 1.0 dB (94 dB ± 0.1 dB).

3.2.2                The details of the noise monitoring equipment used are summarized in Table 7.

3.3                Monitoring Parameters and Frequency

3.3.1                The parameters and frequencies of impact noise monitoring is summarized in Table 8.

3.4                Monitoring Methodology

3.4.1                Noise measurement should be conducted as the following procedures:

·       The monitoring station will set at a point 1m from the exterior of the sensitive receivers building façade and set at a position 1.2m above the ground. (In case façade measurement is not feasible on-site, a free field correction of +3dB(A) will be applied.)

·       The battery condition was checked to ensure good functioning of the meter.

·       Parameters such as frequency weighting, the time weighting and the measurement time will set as follows:

§  frequency weighting: A

§  time weighting: Fast

§  measurement time: 30 minutes

·       Prior to and after noise measurement, the meter shall be calibrated using the calibrator for 94.0 dB at 1000 Hz. If the difference in the calibration level before and after measurement is more than 1.0 dB, the measurement will consider invalid and repeat of noise measurement is required after re-calibration or repair of the equipment.

·       Noise measurement should be paused during periods of high intrusive noise if possible and observation shall be recorded when intrusive noise is not avoided.

·       Noise measurements shall not be made in fog, rain, wind with a steady speed exceeding 5 m/s or wind with gusts exceeding 10 m/s. The wind speed shall be checked with a portable wind speed meter capable of measuring the wind speed in m/s. Calibration certificate of the anemometer is provided in Appendix D.

3.5                Maintenance and Calibration

3.5.1                Maintenance and calibration procedures should also be carried out, including:

·       The microphone head of the sound level meter and calibrator should be cleaned with a soft cloth at quarterly intervals.

·       The sound level meter and calibrator should be calibrated annually by a HOKLAS laboratory.

·       Relevant calibration certificates are provided in Appendix D.

3.6                Monitoring Locations

3.6.1                In accordance with the EM&A Manual, three noise monitoring locations, namely CM1, CM2 and CM3 are covered under Contract No. SPW 02/2023 “Environmental Team for Construction of Yuen Long Effluent Polishing Plant Stage 1”.

3.6.2                The most updated locations are summarized in Table 9 and the locations of the noise monitoring stations shown in Figure 3.

3.7                Monitoring Results

3.7.1                The schedule of noise monitoring in reporting month is provided in Appendix E.

3.7.2                No Action / Limit Level exceedance of location CM1, CM2 and CM3 was recorded for construction noise in the reporting month.

3.7.3                During the monitoring month, at CM2, road traffic from the squatter house at the west of Yuen Long STW was observed, at CM3, road traffic from the Nam Sang Wai Road was observed. No effect that arose from the other special phenomena and work progress of the concerned site for CM1 was noted during the current monitoring month.

3.7.4                No raining and wind with speed over 5 m/s was observed during noise monitoring according to the onsite observation. The weather and meteorological conditions during the monitoring month are provided in Appendix K.

3.7.5                The Construction Noise Monitoring Results are summarized in Table 10. Detailed monitoring data are presented in Appendix F.

3.7.6                The Action and Limit Levels for Construction Noise have been set and are presented in Appendix C.

3.7.7                The Event and Action Plan for Construction Noise is given in Appendix H.

3.8                Comparison of Noise Monitoring data with EIA Predictions

3.8.1                The noise monitoring data was compared with the EIA predictions as summarized in Table 11.

3.8.2                The construction noise monitoring results at CM1, CM2 and CM3 were below the Maximum Predicted mitigated Construction Noise Level in the approved Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Report (Register No.: AEIAR-220/2019).