With community advocates tracing the source of “The Hum” to a ship-unloading operation at CalPortland on the Duwamish River edge of West Seattle – as first reported here yesterday – the question became: So now what? We have an update from Carolyn and Billy Stauffer, co-chairs of Highland Park Action Committee, who had helped sleuth “The Hum” and led the discussion at last night’s HPAC meeting. They went back to CalPortland today/tonight and have just shared this update with WSB:

Here are the steps CalPortland is taking:

*They can’t just shut it down right now after learning about the problem, as the ship is on an international schedule and they’ve committed to having it unloaded by a certain date.

*They shut the vacuum pumps off for 6 hours today to change the direction of the discharge hoping that might help in the interim.

*They are adding soundproofing to the unit as we speak

*They have hired an outside noise consultant to help them find a solution

*Tomorrow afternoon the current shipment should be done, and they plan on dissambling the vacuums so they can inspect the mufflers and

*Noise abatement equipment within the unit

*Most importantly though- they are committed to finding a solution