Rumford residents plagued by mysterious noise coming from paper mill

Nov 02, 2024

RUMFORD (WGME) -- People in Rumford and Mexico have been plagued by a loud and mysterious noise coming from the paper mill over the last few days.

They say it ranged from a high-pitched screech to the sound of a revving jet engine, and it happened at all hours of the day and night.

"It's just, oh my goodness. How am I going to sleep tonight?” Kathy Williams, who lives near the Rumford paper mill, said. "Everybody's complaining about it.”

Town noise ordinances don't cover noise from industrial sites, but after three days of this, some neighbors think it should.

"It was a ridiculously loud and high-pitched screech,” Mary Hickey, who lives near the Rumford paper mill, said.

"You can hear it all over town,” Williams said. “It's all night long.”

"It just stopped about an hour ago,” Peggy Sue Townsend, who lives near the Rumford paper mill, said.

Townsend recorded the noise.

She lives near the mill and never heard it sound like that before.

“The only thing I could think of was like a motor, a high-pitched motor that just wouldn't stop. And I just couldn't get any relief from it,” Townsend said. "And I thought, ‘When is this thing going to stop?’ It was enough to just drive you out of your mind.”

"I mean it was three days,” Hickey said. "Continuously. There was no let up.”

"It's very loud,” Rumford Town Manager George O’Keefe said.

O'Keefe also heard the noise.

"It sounded like a jet engine,” O’Keefe said.

CBS13 called the mill to find out what caused the noise. We were told it's just normal startup.

Neighbors say they never did get an answer from the mill or the town.

"You're a victim of this noise,” Hickey said. “And no one seems to be able to help.”

"We don't like it when they reach that level of noise,” O’Keefe said.

He did get a response from the head of environmental compliance at ND Paper, who says one of the large boilers malfunctioned, causing the mill and paper machines to shut down.

He says, “the steam imbalance caused the mill to vent steam nearly continuously throughout this time period.”

"So that produced an extended period of steam venting, which was quite loud,” O’Keefe said.

He says steam venting, and getting the mill's turbine engine back online, caused both loud noises.

The mill says with operations now stable, the engine and steam noise has subsided.