AT&T We Can't Sleep
An open letter to Mr. John Stankey and the leadership of AT&T
To Mr. John Stankey, CEO AT&T
AT&T Willow Tech Center in Redmond[1], Washington is in violation of the City of Redmond noise ordinance chapter 6.36 Noise Standards as verified by a noise impact study by an INCE board certified principal acoustical engineer with Tenor Acoustical Engineering and also by the City of Redmond [2]. AT&T has thus far refused to mitigate the issue after numerous complaints through the city of Redmond, complaints spanning back years. The noise produced by AT&T’s chillers and HVAC units are having a detrimental impact on multiple families' lives and health of both adults and children who are unable to sleep.
The night time limit of 50 decibels is breached every hour of the night, every day of the week. Inside home decibel readings can breach 50 decibels making it impossible to have a proper night of sleep or any kind of normalcy -- this is a form of torture and we are pleading with you to resolve this immediately.
Mr. Stankey, please listen to this live video and audio stream from a residence near the AT&T Willow Tech Center.
Live stream of AT&T Research in Redmond, WA. Chiller is on at temperatures above 45 °F
The World Health Organization states the following:
Electrophysiological and behavioral methods have demonstrated that both continuous and intermittent noise indoors lead to sleep disturbance. The more intense the background noise, the more disturbing is its effect on sleep. Measurable effects on sleep start at background noise levels of about 30 dB … Where noise is continuous, the equivalent sound pressure level should not exceed 30 dBA indoors, if negative effects on sleep are to be avoided…. When the noise is composed of a large proportion of low-frequency sounds a still lower guideline value is recommended, because lowfrequency noise (e.g. from ventilation systems) can disturb rest and sleep even at low sound pressure levels.Source: https://www.who.int/docstore/peh/noise/Comnoise-4.pdf
The noise is heightened by the tonal nature of the AT&T building chiller systems at 315 Hz and 630 Hz from the residence 1 balcony on March 1, 2021, at 4:00 PM: balcony-r1.wav. The chiller unit only operates when the outside temperature is higher than 45°F.
Mr. Stankey, we've pleaded with AT&T and the city of Redmond to mitigate the issue and have had no success. AT&T has pushed back and refused to mitigate this noise. Mr. Stankey, we are asking you directly to please end the suffering of multiple families by mitigating the chiller and HVAC units at your research facility.
Thank you
[1] Willows Tech Center at 14500 NE 87th Street in Redmond, Washington (AT&T WTC)
[2] 