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ALAMEDA: Seeing no further questions for the intervenor, I’d like to ask the <br />Department to provide testimony. <br />YUEN: I just like to -. There are a couple of questions I’d like to ask Mr. Farwell. <br />Do you know on a quantitative level, like decibels, a noise level produced by your factory? <br />FARWELL: When the cracker is running, it’s 120. <br />YUEN: And that’s measured close to the factory? <br />FARWELL: That’s within about twenty feet of the cracker. I put the cracker in a <br />sound-insulated room, and I’m trying to use a special type of acoustic material. It holds the <br />noise down but it is considerable. The cracker is running at 15 nuts a second and it’s air <br />actuated, so what you are hearing is a hammer -. It’s a complicated process, but you have a nut <br />hitting an anvil and bouncing back, and as it bounces back the piston hits it. So you have a <br />ricochet action and in this ricochet action, it sounds just like a Gatling gun. <br />YUEN: So that’s 120 -. How close to the factory? Just right outside it, that close? <br />FARWELL: Well, a noise travels up a lot. I was surprised the other day. Because I’ve <br />further automated the system so that I can move away from the cracker, I don’t have to, actually <br />have to be there. And it’s got a considerable wrap some distance out. <br />YUEN: You’ve measured this with a noise meter? <br />FARWELL: Actually it is so loud you can’t get anywhere near the cracker without a <br />hearing protection, so it’s a -. The meter itself that we’ve used before, it showed 115, but that <br />was not that close to the machine. It was way above anything anyone could stand. Human, if <br />you get about 95 decibels, you are starting to get into serious problems. <br />YUEN: How long have you been doing this macadamia nut cracking operation? <br />FARWELL: Five years. <br />YUEN: And the three complaints are the only ones that you -, the only times <br />you’ve had noise complaints or other complaints from the neighbors on your farming operation? <br />FARWELL: No. Those three were the only ones. <br />YUEN: Those three were the, okay. <br />FARWELL: And they all came from the same place. That’s why I’m concerned. <br />YUEN: Okay, thank you. <br />ALAMEDA: Mr. Director, do you have anything to add to your testimony or -? They <br />were mostly questions, yeah? Go ahead. <br /> EXHIBIT A <br />24 <br /> <br />