Aiming to reduce the negative environmental impacts of snow management
The regulations governing snow management need to be clarified in terms of both the terminology used and the management and monitoring of negative environmental impacts. The changes will clarify the content of the regulations and respond to current environmental protection needs, as water protection legislation has become stricter. The aim is to prevent environmental pollution and eliminate or reduce the negative impacts of snow management.
At snow reception and piling sites, meltwater can have negative impacts on the environment. These sites must be placed and their operations organised in such a way that their negative impacts can be prevented. This regulation more strongly steers the establishment of snow reception sites to take place outside environmentally sensitive areas. The requirement to treat meltwater has been clarified compared to the previous regulation.
In terms of noise abatement, the main priority is to prevent long-lasting noise nuisances at night. The regulation requires providing the environmental protection authority with the necessary information in advance for supervision purposes. A deadline for providing this information has been added to the regulation as a new feature.
Residents must be informed of noise and vibration nuisances
The regulations are proposed to be changed in such a way that going forward, information must be provided about all activities causing noise or vibration nuisances in advance to those impacted by them. This information provision is a minimum measure in noise abatement.
Noise and vibration abatement must be agreed upon with particularly sensitive sites
The changes also aim to ensure that in the future, all operators will negotiate and agree upon minimising noise or vibration nuisance from their activities with particularly sensitive sites, e.g. care and educational institutions and churches. Any negative impacts on them must be minimised by using the best available noise and vibration abatement techniques.
Daytime concert series are also subject to the noise notification requirement
It is necessary to clarify the noise notification obligation regarding certain construction works, open-air concerts, aerodromes and fireworks shows. The notification must also be made if large open-air concerts are held in the same event area for a total of more than 10 days per year. A large open-air concert refers to a concert with an audience of about 500 people or more, where the starting noise level of the music at the mixing point is about 90–100 decibels.
As an advance supervision measure, the noise notification obligation is more effective and flexible than retroactive supervision in providing the necessary regulations to prevent nuisances.
The current situation, in which the authority has had to intervene in issues such as noise nuisances caused by long open-air concert series in the middle of them, is unforeseeable for the operator. Furthermore, the retroactive supervision practice may cause long-lasting unreasonable nuisances to those affected, as the supervision process, including hearings, is often very slow. From the point of view of the authority, retroactive supervision is very burdensome and may require up to several dozen times more resources than the noise notification procedure. The list of operators subject to the notification obligation is not exhaustive, as ultimately, the obligation to notify is always determined on the basis of the Environmental Protection Act.
Aiming to secure nighttime peace and quiet
The aim of the changes to the regulations is to direct all activities that cause disruptive noise or vibration at night to be carried out mainly during the day. The aim is also to ensure that in the future, any activities that cause noise or vibration nuisances at night are announced in advance to those affected. Nighttime nuisances must be minimised by using the best available noise and vibration abatement techniques. Clarifying the regulations has proven necessary, particularly due to nuisances caused by music played from indoors to outdoors. At the same time, the regulation regarding street music will be removed as inoperative.
The aim of the environmental protection regulations is to prevent pollution of the environment in accordance with the Environmental Protection Act. The City of Helsinki’s environmental protection regulations entered into force for the first time in 2005. The regulations were previously clarified in 2006, 2009 and 2018 on the basis of experiences, feedback and changing legislation.
