KOLOA — Up-to-Date Cleaners, Inc., in Koloa, which is legally operating in an area zoned residential, was recently issued a temporary noise permit after more than a handful of neighbors complained about loud noises coming from the business.
“It’s different (from) a case between two homes. When you start getting into huge machinery, it’s more difficult because it’s so much more noise and unfortunate that they’re zoned residential. If not zoned residential, they may be within compliance,” said Phillip Wong, the only Department of Health (DOH) noise branch inspector on O‘ahu assigned to Kauai. He said it’s the hardest case he has handled in 25 years on Kaua‘i.
Seven families, six of whom live on the premises at Pa‘anau Affordable Housing units and the Koloa Estates subdivision, submitted complaints about loud mechanical and stereo music, among other things, coming from the cleaners, said Wong.
He said the business meets daytime decibel requirements but is exceeding night noise levels for the residential area. The month-to-month DOH permit allows the company to exceed noise decibel levels until Aug. 4, but it has to work toward abating the noise.
“So they have to prove that it’s getting better and we have the option to not extend any more,” said Wong.
There is progress, Wong said. “They’re moving toward compliance, bringing in so-called quieter machines, and as long as they bring in barriers, they can contain the noise.”
This is not the first time concerns have been raised about the company. DOH has been receiving noise and other complaints about the company since 2007. It was fined once in the past, by the DOH Clean Air Branch, and also was granted five other noise permits or renewals as the business worked at reducing the noise.
“It has taken five years and I’m not happy either,” Wong said. “I’d like to have this case closed already. And we’re moving in that direction.”
Wong said noise complaints against Up-to-Date re-emerged after a fire last December that reportedly caused $100,000 in damage.
“For a couple years, it was quiet,” he said. “The fire (occurred) and different machinery came in and the complaints came in.”
Up-to Date-Cleaners spokesman Sam Liu said the fire wiped out the production side of the facility.
“When equipment is compromised, there might’ve been louder mechanical sounds. Most of that has been (addressed),” said Liu.
“Any noises outside of that such as stereo music, employees have been reprimanded. There’s no more radio after a certain time,” he said.
The noise permit the company was issued says that at night, the doors must be closed between 10 p.m. to 7 a.m. and the use of the dryers should be prohibited between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., said DOH’s Wong.
In residential areas, noise levels need to be as quiet as 45 decibels at night from 10 p.m. to 7 a.m., and a maximum of 55 decibels for daytime.
Liu said that the fire at the plant accelerated the changeover in equipment that the company had planned before the fire. “We have been installing since March about 70,000 pounds of equipment that’s been delivered.”
“That’s only the first crop of equipment to be delivered,” he said. “The next crop will come in within 45 days, after that in another 40 days. Before the end of the year, we will have the feature of noise insulation in all of them.”
The new equipment, Liu said, will also be more efficient, which it has to be. Up-to-Date, he said, has the responsibility of being the largest commercial cleaner on the island and serves Kaua‘i’s hospitals, including Wilcox Memorial, Kauai Veterans Memorial, Mahelona and all of their satellite facilities as well as Garden Isle long-term care facility.
He said the business, which was established 62 years ago in Koloa and employs up to 100, is the island’s only “96-hour FEMA protocol.” This means that 24 hours before a catastrophe strikes, there should be four days of clean linen in the hospitals on Kaua‘i.
Without this, he said, there exists a threat of a pandemic as a result of a “breakage in the bacteria efficacy” from dirty linen.
The Makizuru family, led by chairman of the board Roy and daughter Shari, owns Up-to-Date. “They didn’t have to do it. They have designed in the system enough backup supply” to do this, said Liu.
Liu said that the company is “moving forward in trying to accomplish both a business that is viable to supply the needs of our clients and by providing equipment that are quieter.”
Wong of DOH said he can sympathize with the cleaners, which existed before the subdivision was built, “but development has been allowed to come around and it’s a matter of keeping up with the times and they have to conform to state law Title 11, Chapter 46, Community Noise Control.”
Papers were drawn to fine the company, according to Darren Yamada, DOH noise branch supervisor, but the fine has yet to be signed and issued so the amount is not yet public information. Wong said fines can reach as high as $10,000 per day.
“Eventually, with all of the fines involved, (the business) should move away or shut but I don’t think anyone wants that to happen, with employment and providing of business to the community,” said Wong.
Liu of Up-to-Date said, “We’re not right and we’re not wrong. It’s the sign of the times. It’s challenging. The goal is to get better.”
Wong said that ultimately, when it comes to man-made noise pollution, it’s never going to sound like “trickling water or rustling leaves” and even if people stay within the established noise decibel levels, there will still be complaints.
“This noise law is only a compromise,” he said.
• Jane Esaki, business writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 257) or by emailling jesaki@thegardenisland.com.
