Noise in Nature and Law

Environmental lawyer and Animal Law Committee member Robin Happel hosts a discussion on noise pollution and noise law with Jamie Banks of Quiet Communities and ocean noise researcher Vanessa ZoBell. Jamie explains how chronic leaf-blower and land-care noise led her to found Quiet Communities. She describes gaps in federal, state, and local noise regulation, focusing on the 1972 Noise Control Act, the rise and 1982 defunding of EPA’s Office of Noise Abatement and Control, and Quiet Communities’ lawsuit to reactivate the program. Vanessa outlines major ocean noise sources (commercial shipping and seismic air-gun surveys) and impacts on marine life, including stress, masking, behavioral changes, and examples such as post-9/11 stress hormone reductions in right whales and sonar-linked beaked whale strandings. They discuss challenges of relying on A-weighted averages, low-frequency noise, communication barriers, voluntary and incentive-based programs, electrification of equipment, vessel speed reduction benefits, and long-term California soundscape findings tied to economic events and marine heatwaves, plus vulnerable human populations and environmental justice concerns.