Sound Monitoring

Background

The MAC owns and operates a permanent system of 39 Remote Monitoring Towers (RMT) that are located in the neighborhoods underlying the flight paths of aircraft arriving at and departing from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport (MSP). Occasionally the MAC receives requests from community members who would like to have additional noise monitoring data collected through the use of mobile noise monitoring devices. Often these requests pertain to measuring MSP aircraft noise impacts on property privately owned by a resident. 

The MSP Noise Oversight Committee (NOC) discussed this matter during its meetings in March, May and July 2012 and determined that specific goals and a well-defined purpose for mobile noise monitoring must be provided with each request. Criteria for mobile noise monitoring requests were established and approved by the NOC on July 11, 2012. These criteria must be met before objective consideration of a mobile noise monitoring request can be completed by the NOC.  These criteria are described below.

Mobile Noise Monitoring Form

Criteria

 
Requests from the public for mobile noise monitoring in the communities surrounding MSP must be coordinated through a current NOC member and submitted to the MAC Community Relations Office for evaluation. Requests that are evaluated will be shared with NOC members during a regularly-scheduled committee meeting, along with MAC staff's recommendation regarding the request.

The following criteria must be met before mobile noise monitoring can be conducted:

  • Mobile noise monitoring will not be done where there is already the presence of a monitoring tower that can provide the data being sought.
  • Mobile noise monitoring will not be done to benefit a single resident or building.
  • Mobile noise monitoring should be conducted only to the benefit of a large section of the community that is suffering the effects of unusual aircraft noise events that are difficult to monitor otherwise.
  • The goal of the mobile noise monitoring effort must be well-defined and realistically achievable.
  • The mobile noise monitoring request must identify why current monitoring data are inadequate for analysis.

Request Form

 
A MAC Mobile Noise Monitoring Request Form must be completed for each requested noise monitoring project. Completed request forms must be submitted by a current NOC representative and mailed or emailed to the MAC Community Relations Office.

Questions about the request form or the criteria should be directed to the MAC Community Relations Office at 612-726-9411.

Evaluation of Mobile Sound Monitoring Requests

 
Once a completed request form is received from a current NOC member, the MAC Community Relations Office Acoustics and Technical Systems Coordinator and the NOC Technical Advisor will review it to determine whether or not the request meets the approved criteria.  Requests must be received by MAC staff from the NOC member at least 45 days prior to a NOC meeting to be included in that meeting's agenda. 

After review by MAC staff, each request will be submitted to the NOC with the MAC's recommendation for or against approval of conducting the requested mobile noise monitoring. After the NOC addresses the request at a NOC meeting, the NOC member who forwarded the request to the MAC will follow up with the original requestor. 

Questions related to the status of a mobile sound monitoring request should be directed to the MAC Community Relations Office at 612-726-9411.