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.....Coalition against ORV Nuisances
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Hurrah! The new Thurston County noise ordinance passed on 6 June 2005! Show this to the Sheriff's Deputies when you call them out to enforce it. Here are the differences from the old ordinance. Here is CORVN's letter of support for the new ordinance. Thank you to Susan Bogni and the County Prosecuting Attorney's office for writing, and to the Commissioners for passing, this new, improved, more enforceable ordinance. WA State laws about ORVs and noise: RCW 46.09 and proposed amendments, Senate Bill 5089 (sponsored by Sens. Sheldon and Fraser) and House Bill 1455 (formerly HB 2413, sponsored by Rep. Haigh).Please write your state senator or representative to support these amendments! RCW 46.09.120 Operating violations for off-road vehicles (non-highway vehicles) RCW 46.09.190 General penalty -- Civil liability - fines for operating ORVs with excessive noise or in inappropriate places. CORVN Fact Sheet on these amendments, and general RCW link .
Thurston County ordinances about noise and
ORVs:
Most City codes explicitly forbid activities such as ORV operations in city limits. City police will enforce this. Mason County ordinance No. 54-89 forbids ORV noise above 55 dBA, consistent with WA State law. The two old laws dealing with ORV nuisances in Thurston County concern noise: Thurston County Code 10.36.030 Public disturbance noise. http://www.bpcnet.com/codes/thurston/ WAC 173.60.040 Maximum permissible environmental noise levels. http://www.leg.wa.gov/wac/ This WAC code gives specific decibel readings and times. We recommend recording decibel readings on videotape with video of the ORV riding. The Sheriff's Office has been unwilling to enforce the ordinances based on this evidence, but a judge did find that this met the burden of proof required to impose a permanent injunction against the ORV track in our Thurston County neighborhood. For more details, see Solutions. The Sheriff's Office (SO) appears not to be accountable to any state office, neither to the Thurston County Commissioners nor to the Prosecuting Attorney's Office. The SO is accountable chiefly to voters, as Sheriff is an elected position. Please share any additional information you may have with CORVN@comcast.net. We want this webpage to be as useful as possible to people suffering ORV nuisances. |
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