Eric Zwerling.
The Rutgers Noise Technical Assistance Center (RNTAC) has been training noise investigators, conducting research, and providing technical assistance to governmental agencies, industrial clients, and residents since the 1970s.
For the past 25 years, RNTAC has operated under the direction of Eric Zwerling, Department of Environmental Sciences, who conducts the training and the research, regularly published in journals.
Recently—as reported in the Norwalk Hour—the Ordinance Committee of Norwalk, Connecticut’s Town Council recommended hiring Zwerling to help rewrite Norwalk’s noise ordinance, which he will do in his capacity as president of The Noise Consultancy, LLC. This review of the town’s noise ordinance is the result of residents’ complaints about noise emanating from bars, nightclubs and industrial businesses in South Norwalk.
Once the code is written, Norwalk’s Town Council may avail itself of Zwerling’s training expertise as director of the RNTAC.
“In my capacity as Director of the RNTAC, in the past 26 years I’ve trained maybe 8,000 noise enforcement investigators throughout the country from Alaska to Florida, as well as internationally,” wrote Zwerling in a letter to the city’s law department
As part of the Air and Noise Training Program in the Department of Environmental Sciences, the RNTAC trains and certifies enforcement personnel in New Jersey pursuant to state law, and conducts courses across the U.S. and internationally. Trainees represent regulatory agencies, police, health, code, zoning, and law officials, industrial clients, consultants, and New Jersey residents.
The training emphasizes the technology, techniques, and strategies of conducting sound level measurements to evaluate regulatory compliance and, if appropriate, proceed to enforcement and prosecution.
The RNTAC participates in the New Jersey Noise Control Council, an advisory body to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, and serves to address topical issues and provide long-term solutions such as interpreting and amending the state noise code.
Additional information on the RNTAC and also on the Rutgers Air Pollution Training Program can be found in the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station 2017 Annual Report. Also see the RNTAC website.
