The city of Newport and its citizens have been at odds with River Metals Recycling for years, but most recently have entered a criminal complaint against the company after four counts of noise violations.
Residents who live near the recycling plant have complained of loud explosion-like noises from the plant sometimes as often as a daily basis.
“Sometimes it’s three and four times a day you literally go outside like was there an explosion?” Lifelong Newport resident Brandi Eileen said. “Did a garbage truck hit my house?”
Not only are the loud noises disruptive, but they’ve even caused damage to the house Eileen rents.
“Even inside my house, you can see like the window is splitting,” Eileen said. “There’s cracks in the ceilings. The landlord that owns it had to re-brace underneath in the basement.”
Newport City Manager Tom Fromme declined to comment due to the ongoing criminal complaint.
The official complaint reads:
“The Affiant, Stan Schmale, states that during 1/22/2021 thru 12/15/2021 in Campbell County, Kentucky, the above-named defendant unlawfully: committed the offense of violation of the City of Newport Zoning Code. Affiant states that on or about January 4, 2022, the Defendant River Metals Recycling, LLC did violate the City of Newport Zoning Code, Section 11.1 C. (NOISE) by causing to occur events resulting in noise exceeding the permitted decibel sound pressure levels as set in Table 10 of Section 11.1. Said events were recorded by V12 triaxial geophone and S50noise meter monitors placed on January 4th, 2021.”
Lifelong Newport resident Samantha Bolin said that while she hears the noises, she thinks it’s unnecessary to complain about a company that has operated in the area for 60 plus years — longer than she has lived there.
“I don’t feel like I have the right to complain,” she said. “I’ve lived in Newport for 44 years. They were here before me. So, I’m not one of the ones who are upset about them or complaining.”
Bolin lives about a block away from the site. She said there are some months where you don’t hear anything, and then there are some months where your whole house shakes.
“If they had a minor one [explosion], you’ll feel a little bit of a shake, or your windows will rattle a little bit or feel like maybe a car hit another car,” Bolin said. “You hear a little boom. Those are the smaller ones that aren’t so bad. And then you’ll hear the ones that just like ‘boom,’ like lightning and thunder just struck above your house, and the whole house shakes.”
She said because she knows what is causing the noises, it’s not a big deal to her. Bolin said she also lives across the street from a train that shakes her house.
“What’s the difference between the train shaking your house and River Metals Recycling shaking your house,” Bolin said.
But noise isn’t the only concern Eileen has; she also said pollution is a problem.
“The city changes,” Eileen said. “Pollutant. I mean, as years go on, you don’t excavate those sites or dig them up. That stuff just stays in the ground. You know, if you’re just burying it on top of burying it, not all things are meant to stay forever,”
Bolin said she has never filed any complaints to the city, nor does she believe anyone who lives on her block has.
To help block out noise, River Metals Recycling built a $300,000 state-of-the-art sound barrier back in September 2021. However, residents say they haven’t noticed much of a difference.
“They did just build like a boom wall, but it’s not helping,” Eileen said.
Bolin said it depends on the noise situation whether the wall has an impact.
Eileen said it took two years of people complaining for the city to step in and file a criminal complaint.
“We’ve all made complaints, and we have a city page [on Facebook],” Eileen said. “That’s where we complain. And all these committee members, all the council people, they can all see them, and everything just kind of stays stagnant. They don’t concern themselves with the people on the west end.”
Commonwealth of Kentucky vs. River Metals Recycling is set for pretrial on April 4.
