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Approved 1/11/2016 OC Board of Adjustment – 11/9/15 Page 25 of 48 1 James Bryan: That would be ok. 2 3 Karen Barrows: Good, I think that makes sense. 4 5 James Bryan: If the Board is comfortable with it, we can continue on the premise that all the parties here are present and they are 6 all waving any objection to this and we will go witness by witness and have questions by questions. Ok, is that what the Board and 7 party please? 8 9 Karen Barrows: Sounds fine, I’m ok with that. Let me ask, are there folks who specifically would have a question for Dr. Stewart? 10 11 Wallace Williams: I do. 12 13 Karen Barrows: We have a few. I’ll start with you, if you’d like to come up and introduce yourself and tell us if you’ve been sworn. 14 And then you can ask your question. 15 16 Wallace Williams: I have not been sworn. 17 18 Karen Barrows: Well then, where’s our bible? …. If you’d put your hand on the bible sir. 19 20 Wallace Williams: My name is Wallace Williams and I live at 7714 Shakori Ridge Drive in Chapel Hill which is off of Millikan Road 21 which is approximately 2 miles away from where she plans to… 22 23 Karen Barrows: Do you confirm that the testimony that you’re about to give is the truth and the whole truth? 24 25 Wallace Williams: I do. 26 27 Karen Barrows: Ok, thank you. 28 29 Wallace Williams: So, my question is about once or twice a year, I live about at least a mile from most churches but about once or 30 twice a year, I can hear their parties as if they’re right next door and I can actually hear them talking. So…. 31 32 -inaudible- 33 34 Noral Stewart: And why it may only be once or twice a year and so forth? 35 36 Wallace Williams: Well, they only have the parties once or twice a year. 37 38 Noral Stewart: Ok, yes, I’ve seen situations in very quiet communities where activities like that have been heard as much as a mile 39 away. One of the things about sound, in on regard, might have heard of the inverse square rule/law in high school physics, which 40 basically says that the sound decreases about 6 dB for every doubling of distance. Which means that once you start getting a 41 thousand feet away or so, you have to go another thousand feet to get another 6 dB and then you got to go another two thousand 42 feet to get another 6 db. So it doesn’t drop off very rapidly and that’s especially the lower frequencies. Higher frequencies will drop 43 off more rapidly due to what we call atmospheric absorption. That tends to kill down so you do tend to hear more of the lower 44 frequency sound over long distances. But, a couple of things that affect what you hear at different times. You ever went out in the 45 early morning, around sunrise? You hear things that are far away that you don’t hear in the middle of the day. What is happening 46 there is what we call a temperature inversion effect, which causes the sound that starts off going up to curve back down on you. 47 And you hear those things from far away, I remember a few years ago an acoustician friend of mine, we were about a mile and a 48 half from I40 and he was hearing it out in a very quiet area and he was surprised and I said, “No John, you can do it. When you’ve 49 got those conditions early in the morning.”. Those conditions can occur at other times. Most commonly they’re overnight or early in 50 the morning. The can occur in the evening also. Especially after sunset. So, that’s the time that sound’s going to be heard over 51 distance, beyond a thousand feet or so, the strongest is those types of things. Now, beyond that, there can be what we call 52 focusing effects. Where on the rare occasion you’ll get that sound that’s traveling up and being bent by the atmosphere, focused in 53 such a way that at some particular location, some distance away, it’s all focus there and it’s particularly loud for a few minutes. A 54 few minutes later it’s gone. That’s the kind of thing you really can’t predict, you can’t hold anybody reliable for it or anything, it’s 55