Friday, September 18, 2020

Noise Pollution Coming From Digital Realty in Printers Row?

A reader writes:

This topic was previously posted on the Hello South Loop page. We received a lot of feedback and found more residents affected by the noise pollution created by Digital Realty. I am hoping we can reach out to even more residents in the South Loop. 

Across from the west side of the Transportation Building, there are chillers on the rooftop of 600-740 S Federal Street. They are owned and operated by Digital Realty. Recently, they have doubled the amount of chillers that operate 24/7 above the city's noise ordinance, 55 dBa per Ord. 8-32-090. The sound levels recorded reached 79 dBA inside the units. The equivalent of 70 dBa is a vacuum cleaner, and 80 dBa is a garbage disposal. 

I am reaching out to understand if there are more neighbors in the area who are also affected by this. There is another Digital Realty location on 350 E Cermak Rd.  

Here are some videos of the noise pollution during different times of the day. 

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC56jf1lv7emP7aJ8P0Utp_Q  

Please comment below or email me (mikegulik@gmail.com) if you have any stories or advice battling noise pollution.  

There is also a facebook page with more information on the issue:

https://www.facebook.com/Printers-Row-Sound-Mitigation-114603423671757


We checked out the youtube videos and it sounds pretty f'ing loud:


(Hat tip: KZ!)

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