Vt. orchard resumes shooting hail cannon
Toolbox
By PATRICK McARDLE Rutland Herald STAFF - Published: July 4, 2009
BENNINGTON – Residents may have to get used to the sound of the hail cannon firing from Southern Vermont Orchard again.
Last year, orchard owner Harold Albinder voluntarily stopped firing the hail cannon after residents complained and police cited the orchard for violating noise ordinances.
Recently, however, the cannon has been set off again. On Wednesday, Bennington Town Manager Stuart Hurd said there was little that could be done.
Hurd said Bennington Police Chief Richard Gauthier told him that officers received complaints on Tuesday around 5 p.m. that the cannon was being used. Gauthier said no one from the orchard had informed police that the cannon would be fired that day.
Officers went to the orchard to measure the sound levels of the cannon but Hurd said that it was found to be in compliance with town ordinances.
The town forbids sounds louder than 70 decibels during the day but Hurd said police found the sound made by the cannon was consistently at 63 decibels.
The noise level would have violated municipal ordinances at night but not during the day, according to Hurd.
In 2008, police issued three citations, which each carried a penalty of $100, to the orchard because of the noise caused by the hail cannon but after Albinder agreed to stop using it, the town dismissed the citations.
Hail cannons have already been the source of controversy because many scientists don't believe they work while some farmers who use them insist that they have been effective in preventing hail damage to crops.
The cannons create a shockwave through an explosion of acetylene gas and oxygen that is enhanced as it travels up the cannon barrel, which also serves to direct it into storm clouds. Hail cannon proponents believe that the shockwave prevents clouds from forming hailstones.
The cannon at Southern Vermont Orchard generated controversy after neighbors and Bennington residents complained at several selectboard meetings in the summer of 2008 while others, including Albinder, defended the cannon as an agricultural tool.
Hurd said staff at the orchard had tried to alleviate the problem this year by building a bunker around the cannon to muffle some of the noise. However, test firings found that the cannon was still violating the ordinance.
The cannon and the orchard's owner had been quiet since that test until the cannon was fired again on Tuesday, according to Hurd.
There was no answer at the orchard to a call placed this week.
While the cannon did not create any violation of the town's ordinance on Tuesday, Hurd said police would continue to monitor the situation and respond to complaints. Because the cannon's blast can be modified by the person firing it, the noise it generates can differ each time it's fired, he said.
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