As used in this section, the following terms shall have the meanings
indicated:
AMBIENT NOISE LEVEL
The sound pressure level of all encompassing noise associated
with a given environment, being usually a composite of sounds from
many sources, and/or the A-weighted sound pressure level exceeded
ninety percent (90%) of the time L90 based on a period of one (1)
hour.
A-WEIGHTED SOUND PRESSURE LEVEL
The sound pressure level as measured in decibels on a sound-level
meter using the A-weighting network. The level so read shall be designated
"dB(A)" or "dBa".
CONTINUOUS NOISE
A steady, fluctuating or impact noise which exists, essentially
without interruptions, for a period of one (1) hour or more.
CYCLICALLY-VARYING NOISE
A steady, fluctuating or impulsive noise which may or may
not contain a pure tone, which varies in sound pressure level such
that the same level is obtained repetitively at reasonably uniform
intervals of time.
DECIBEL
A logarithmic (dimensionless) unit of measure often used
in describing the amplitude of sound. Decibel is denoted as "dB".
DEVICE
Any mechanism which is intended to produce or which actually
produces noise when operated or handled.
EMERGENCY VEHICLE
A motor vehicle used in response to a public calamity or
to protect persons or property from imminent danger.
EMERGENCY WORK
Work made necessary to restore property to a safe condition
following public calamity, work to restore public utilities or work
required to protect persons or property from an imminent exposure
to danger.
FLUCTUATING NOISE
The sound pressure level of a fluctuating noise varies more
than six (6) dB(A) during the period of observation, when measured
with the slow meter characteristic of a sound-level meter, and does
not equal the previously existing ambient noise level more than once
during the period of observation.
MOTORBOAT
Any vehicle which is primarily operated on water or which
does operate on water, such as boats, barges, amphibious craft or
Hovercraft, and which is at any time propelled by mechanical power.
MOTOR VEHICLE
Any vehicles which are propelled or drawn by mechanical equipment,
such as, but not limited to, passenger cars, trucks, truck-trailers,
semitrailers, campers, motorcycles, minibikes, go-carts, snowmobiles,
amphibious craft on land, dune buggies or racing vehicles.
MUFFLER
Any apparatus consisting of baffles, chambers or acoustical
absorbing materials whose primary purpose is to transmit liquids or
gases while causing a reduction in sound emission at one (1) end.
NOISE
Any sound which is unwanted or which causes or tends to cause
an adverse psychological effect on human beings.
NOISE DISTURBANCE
Any sound which annoys, disturbs or perturbs reasonable persons
with normal sensitivities, or any sound which injures or endangers
the comfort, repose, health, hearing, peace or safety of other persons.
PERSON
Any individual, association, partnership or corporation,
and includes any officer, employee, department, agency or instrumentality
of the United States, a State or any political subdivision of that
State.
PLAINLY AUDIBLE NOISE
Any noise for which the information content of that noise
is unambiguously communicated to the listener, such as, but not limited
to, understandable spoken speech or comprehensible musical rhythms.
POWERED MOTOR VEHICLES
Any powered vehicles, either airborne, waterborne or landborne,
which are designed not to carry persons or property, such as, but
not limited to, model airplanes, boats, cars and rockets, and which
can be propelled by mechanical means.
PROPERTY BOUNDARY
Any imaginary line at the ground surface which separates
the real property owned by one (1) person from that owned by another
person, and its vertical extension.
PURE TONE
Any noise which can be distinctly heard as a single pitch
or a set of single pitches. For the purposes of measurement, a pure
tone shall exist if the one-third-octave band sound pressure level
in the band with the tone exceeds the arithmetic average of the sound
pressure levels of the two (2) contiguous one-third-octave bands by
five (5) dB's for frequencies of five hundred (500) Hertz and above,
by eight (8) dB's for frequencies between one hundred sixty (160)
Hertz and four hundred (400) Hertz and by fifteen (15) dB's for frequencies
less than or equal to one hundred twenty-five (125) Hertz.
REPETITIVE IMPULSIVE NOISE
Any noise which is composed of impulsive noises that are
repeated at sufficiently slow rates such that a sound-level meter
set at fast meter characteristic will show changes in sound pressure
level greater than two (2) dB(A)'s.
SOUND
A temporal and spatial oscillation in pressure, or other
physical quality, in a medium with internal forces that causes compression
and rarefaction of that medium and which propagates a finite speed
to distant points.
SOUND LEVEL METER
An instrument, which includes a microphone, amplifier, RMS
detector, integrator or time averager, output meter and weighting
networks, used to measure sound pressure levels.
SOUND PRESSURE
The instantaneous difference between the actual pressure
and the average or barometric pressure at a given point in space.
STATIONARY EMERGENCY SIGNALING DEVICES
Any device, excluding those attached to motor vehicles, used
to alert persons engaged in emergency operations. These include, but
are not limited to, firefighters, first aid squad members and law
enforcement officers, whether paid or volunteer.
STATIONARY NOISE SOURCE
Any device, fixed or movable, which is located or used on
geographically defined real property other than a public right-of-way.
STEADY NOISE
A sound pressure level which remains essentially constant
during the period of observation, i.e., the fluctuations are too small
to meet the criterion for fluctuating noise.
WEEKDAY
A Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday which is
not a legal holiday.