Folsom, CA Noise from Specific Sources: Generator Noise (2026)

Section 8.42.060(B) of the Municipal Code exempts any mechanical device, apparatus, or equipment used, related to, or connected with emergency activities or emergency work from the noise standards set out in Chapter 8.42, including the exterior and interior dBA tables in Sections 8.42.040 and 8.42.050. The chapter defines emergency work in Section 8.42.020 as the use of any machinery, equipment, vehicle, manpower, or other activity in a short-term effort to protect or restore safe conditions in the community, or work by private or public utilities restoring an unplanned interruption of utility service.

A portable or standby generator running because of a power outage, or brought in to support first responders, falls within that definition and is not measured against the numeric limits. A generator run outside that context, for example for routine backup testing, event power, or convenience during a planned outage, does not qualify for the emergency exemption and must instead meet the exterior noise level standards in Table 8.42.040 (as low as 45 dBA at night for sustained noise) or the interior standards in Table 8.42.050, both enforced by the community development director as enforcement officer under Section 8.42.020.

Because a fixed noise source is defined in the same section to include stationary equipment like pumps, fans, compressors, and refrigeration units, a non-emergency generator is treated the same way as those devices for measurement purposes under the calibrated sound-meter protocol in Section 8.42.030.