Ranchlands hum eludes residents two years on

The source ofa mysterious hum in Ranchlands remains a mystery.

Some residents of the northwest Calgary neighbourhood say the noise has been bothering them for more than two years.

The Calgary Eyeopener's David Gray talked to Marcia Epstein onThursday morning about the buzz.

Epsteinis an acoustic ecologist at the University of Calgary and is part of the Ranchlands Noise Investigation Team. The team met with Ranchlands residents Wednesday night to update the team's progress in pinpointing what is making the noise.

David Gray: Remind us, if you can, how residents have been describing the noise?

Marcia Epstein: Most describe it as literally a hum, a "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" sort of sound. Sometimes, apparently, it gets quite a bit louder and sounds more like a jet engine revving up or idling from far away.

DG: Thats a remarkable sound. Weve heard about this for years now, but then we always have some people who say, Ive lived there forever, Ive never heard it. Now, youre an acoustic ecologist, its your job to hear sounds outside have you heard it?

'We know that the sound is happening and theres quite a variation in who hears it. We think its anywhere from 12 to 20 per cent of the community thats affected.' Marcia Epstein, Acoustic ecologist, part of the Ranchlands Noise Investigation Team

ME: I have, actually. The sound is real, we have measurements of it. Im working with an acoustics engineer, who has all the equipment for recording mysterious soundsor at least, the ones that arent too mysterious and hehas hours and hours of recording, so we know that the sound is happening and theres quite a variation in who hears it. We think its anywhere from 12 to 20 per cent of the community thats affected.

DG: And now, is that because of where they live, or how sensitive their ears are?

ME: At this point, were thinking it's probably sensitivity, but it may also be the location of their houses. Because our best guess so far when weve eliminated quite a few things that it isnt our best guess is that its something thats coming through the frames of the houses from underground. And it could be the water system. Were still in the process of checking that out. Its a slow process.

DG: There was a theory, a popular theory, that it was the Bearspaw water station, have you ruled that out?

ME: We have not found a pattern of correlation, between the frequencies that were measuring and the output from the water station at Bearspaw. But, there are some other water stations closer to the Ranchlands. You know, smaller stations that act as, kind of, relays, and we still have to check those.

DG: Another theory, theres lots of them, but another theory I heard was that there was a possibility that it was some kind of electromagnetic frequency from a cellphone station interacting with other frequencies, have you looked into that?

ME: We are starting into the process of looking into that. Its more difficult to do because measurement is very challenging. What we suspect is that for some people there may be a reaction to those frequencies which are not audibletheyre too high. They may be setting off the auditory nerve in some way and theres already documentation in the medical literature about that. Some people are sensitive to electr magnetic frequencies. So were looking at a combination of location, maybe the geology of the area, which is still an open question, we need to get data about that.

DG: Is there anything unique of the geology in the Ranchlands area, that you know of?

ME: We dont know yet, were still looking into that. And the third factor is peoples sensitivity to hearing which is tremendously variable.

DG: It certainly is. I understand that, but youve heard it, is your hearing particularly sensitive?

ME: Well, Im a musician, so it might be. I dont think its abnormally sensitive.

DG: As a musician, any idea what note? Is it an A? Is it an E? Is it a B?

ME: Its not always the same thing, were getting a concentration of frequencies around 40 hertz, and 40 cycles per second.

DG: You know, Im listening to you talk about this, it must be really frusturating not being able to figure this out. Am I hearing that right in your voice?

ME: It is! Yes, well when we started we were expecting it would take maybe a year to figure this out and its been over two, largely because the research team consists of volunteers. We dont have funding, we dont have support from anywhere, so we have to work in this in our spare time, basically. There are little bursts of activity and ten months go by when nobody has time to do anything or were waiting for information from the city or the water system, or whatevers going on, so were glad to accept offers of help from the community.

DG: Now, while youre trying to figure out what it is, and whats causing the sound, there are others that are thinking, Heck, I dont care whats making the noise, lets just stop it.' Tell me about the noise cancellation project thats being worked on for people who live there.

ME: The engineering faculty at the University [of Calgary] is getting interested in this. Michael Smith, who is part of the faculty there, is looking into how the noise could be cancelled out by some device that people could keep in their homes and he has assigned one of his graduate students to work on it.