Through an evolution from rural to residential, Hollister has
grown up around the blustering cookers and towering steam of San
Benito Foods.
With a rapid flow of newcomers in recent decades, residential
neighborhoods have sprouted around the downtown district.
Nearby, the last surviving cannery in the area, which itself has
greatly expanded in scope since its construction in 1915,
remains.
Through an evolution from rural to residential, Hollister has grown up around the blustering cookers and towering steam of San Benito Foods.
With a rapid flow of newcomers in recent decades, residential neighborhoods have sprouted around the downtown district.
Nearby, the last surviving cannery in the area, which itself has greatly expanded in scope since its construction in 1915, remains.
Today, the operation’s endless roar can be heard throughout town during the current 10- to 12-week summer canning season.
And many local people, including long-time residents of the surrounding neighborhood, say the sound – resembling a passing freight train or jet airplane – is worse this year than ever before.
Plant manager Larry Pitts acknowledged a growing intolerance of cannery noise – which he attributed to Hollister’s rapid development and cultural shift. In 1950, the cannery was located on the outskirts of the county, he said.
“Fifteen years ago, it was an agricultural community,” Pitts said. “People were more tolerant of tractors on the road and fertilizer in fields.
“Today, there’s more people that just live here. They don’t work here and they don’t have much tolerance for tractors on the road or the sound of steam and that sort of thing.”
One agitated resident, who recently complained to the city’s Code Enforcement Division about the noise, has lived in his Sally Street house for more than 50 years.
The man, who requested anonymity for his safety, said he has trouble sleeping at night because of the cannery.
“Somebody’s got to say something about it,” he said. “A guy hates to say anything, but what the hell. It’s uncalled for, all that noise.”
San Benito Foods’ property – including the processing plant and several warehouses – stretches one block east from the corner of Hawkins and East streets and, from there, five blocks north to Fourth Street.
Noise heard from the outside, Pitts said, is produced mostly from steam and cookers, which operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That steam, which constantly pours into the sky, is used for tomato peeling and cooking.
San Benito Foods – a division of Washington-based Neil Jones Food Companies – cans more than 100 different tomato-related products, Pitts said. And operations greatly expand each year during the canning season from mid-July to early October.
The company employs nearly 600 people, and about 500 of them work only during the canning season. Many of those seasonal workers migrate here for the season and permanently live in other areas of California and surrounding states.
Pitts said 115 workers have been there for more than 20 years.
San Benito Foods was not included on the county’s latest list of top employers because only year-round workers were figured in, according to Al Martinez, executive director of the Economic Development Corp.
The EDC doesn’t maintain statistics on the number of county residents working for San Benito Foods. And the cannery doesn’t either, according to Pitts.
“I’d only be guessing,” he said.
Martinez said through the years most people living in the vicinity of San Benito Foods – which he called an “old, established neighborhood” – have worked at the cannery.
Aside from offering an employment opportunity for some locals, Pitts said the company spends about $7 million to $8 million in the county each year.
Regardless of the company’s impact on the local economy, Hollister officials said they won’t hesitate to enforce violations of the city’s noise ordinance.
The law calls for regulation of noise according to such criteria as intensity, citizen complaints, proximity to residential properties, time of the day or week, duration and decibels.
The noise level at nearby residential properties is not to exceed 55 decibels during daylight hours or 50 decibels after sunset, according to the ordinance. That is comparable to the level of a normal conversation, which averages about 60 decibels.
“The city does regulate noise and nuisance activity,” said City Attorney Elaine Cass this week. “The city will enforce noise complaints.”
But since the cannery operation has existed there for 88 years – before much of the housing – it may be legally difficult, Cass said, “for the activity to constitute a nuisance.”
“That’s not to say the noise is reasonable. It could have increased (through the years),” she said.
Hollister Code Enforcement Officer Tim Burns is responsible for noise regulation. He took the complaint from the Sally Street resident in late July. Thus far, it is the only official grievance against the cannery received by the city this summer.
Burns, who has lived in Hollister for five years, never noticed excessive cannery noise before 2003. Since he received the complaint, however, its presence has been much more apparent, he said.
“I spoke with the guy, and that night I took the kids out to Premiere Cinemas,” he said. “I came out at 11:45. I don’t know the mileage (from the cannery), but man, it sounded like a high-pressure hose running. It has to be at least a mile.”
Burns suspects the noise is too high. And the issue, he said, is “definitely on my plate.”
He obtained a noise meter from the county Health Department this week and had planned to measure decibel levels at different locations throughout Hollister on Thursday and today.
After the measurements, Burns will consult with other officials, including City Manager Dale Shaddox.
If the readings show improper noise levels, the city would prefer obliging the cannery to lessen noise levels, Cass said, and avoid any fines or closing-down operations.
“Frankly, I don’t know why it hasn’t been an issue in the past,” Burns said.
The California Department of Industrial Health inspects noise–related concerns on a complaint basis – but only inside industrial facilities and for worker-safety purposes.
The agency has examined San Benito Foods three times in recent years – the most recent inspection occurring in October 1999, according to agency spokesman Dean Fryer. San Benito Foods was not cited.
While recently taking a lunch break, some processing plant workers said they’ve become accustomed to the noise.
One woman – a 47–year seasonal worker of the cannery who requested anonymity – said levels inside the plant haven’t changed in recent years.
“Employees don’t seem to complain,” she said. “The noise can’t be helped.”
Pitts said the cannery conducts its own noise measurements and the company maintains a strict stance on safety.
Decibel levels inside the cannery, he said, consistently obey requirements.
The city’s primary concern, however, is the effect industrial noise has on residents of nearby neighborhoods and throughout Hollister.
“If you stand and listen,” Burns said, “it’s quite prevalent.”
And many residents attest cannery noise levels vary throughout the day. Burns, for one, said it is “far more prevalent” at night, and he had planned to measure decibels at varying times of the day.
Pitts denied residents’ assertions that San Benito Foods increases intensity of operations during its night shift.
“Activity is pretty consistent,” Pitts said.
County Health Officer Dr. Elizabeth Falade called severe industrial noise a “quality of life issue.”
Furthermore, enduring noise may affect health by causing negative psychological effects and high blood pressure, she said.
Pitts maintains the cannery strives to be a “good neighbor,” and he personally handles all complaints from area residents.
“We have a short season, and the neighborhood has to accommodate our short season,” Pitts said. “We do everything we can to get along.”
Corporate officials from the parent company did not return phone calls this week.
Pitts said San Benito Foods maintains a solid, long-standing relationship with the city.
But with Hollister’s glut of modern development, along with the company’s expansion, he said, “Ideally, we would be out of town.”
