Aiken County, SC Noise Ordinances: Decibel Limits (2026)

Sec. 3 lists the performance standards a conditionally permitted manufacturing, commercial or other nonresidential use in Table 1 must meet so its operation produces no injurious or obnoxious effect beyond its own property. Subsection (3) targets continuous noise: it requires all noise be muffled so it is not objectionable for intermittence, beat frequency or shrillness, then sets numeric sound-pressure ceilings, measured in decibels with a sound meter and octave-band analyzer meeting American Standards Association specifications, across eight frequency bands. At the low end, 0 to 75 cycles per second, the limit is 72 decibels at a residential lot line and 79 decibels at a nonresidential lot line.

The ceiling tightens as frequency rises: 67/74 decibels from 75 to 150 cycles, 59/66 from 150 to 300, 52/59 from 300 to 600, 46/53 from 600 to 1,200, 40/47 from 1,200 to 2,400, 34/41 from 2,400 to 4,800, and 32/39 decibels from 4,800 to 10,000 cycles per second. is exempt. Any applicant for a use covered by these performance standards must submit a written agreement to comply, and the planning and development director can require mitigation or send the applicant to the board of appeals for a variance if a standard cannot be met.