Kirkwood, MO Noise from Specific Sources: Generator Noise (2026)

Section 17-70(g) of the Kirkwood Code lists exhausts among the conduct that violates the general disturbing-noises prohibition in Section 17-69. It covers the discharge into the open air of exhaust from a steam engine, a stationary internal combustion engine, a motorboat or a motor vehicle, and requires that the discharge pass through a muffler or other device that will effectively prevent loud or explosive noises. A portable or standby generator running in a yard or on a job site counts as a stationary internal combustion engine under this language, so operating one without an effective muffler, or with a muffler removed or bypassed, is itself the violation; the section sets no separate decibel limit or time-of-day restriction for generators the way it does for radios or construction equipment, so the muffler requirement applies around the clock.

The subsection sits alongside 17-70(p), which separately covers noise-creating blowers, power fans and other internal combustion engines whose operating gases or fluids cause noise, requiring those, too, to run with a sufficient muffler device. Kirkwood Police enforce both provisions, and because Chapter 17 sets no specific fine for exhaust noise, a violation is punished under the Code's general penalty at Section 1-14: not less than $5 nor more than $1,000, imprisonment up to three months, or both, with each day the unmuffled equipment runs charged as a separate offense.