‘You can’t sleep’: Factory noise returns in Okmulgee

By Clifton Haskin

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    OKMULGEE, Oklahoma (KJRH) — This is the second time 2 News received a complaint about the noise coming from CP Kelco in Okmulgee.

In September, staff said they reached “audio solutions.”

City leaders said Kelco did a shutdown and put a structure over their compressors to lower the noise.

However, when they continued operations, people said they weren’t happy with the noise. Christopher Azbell lives in Okmulgee.

“The first day it came up, you knew instantly that the town was shaking again. The noise was back, and it was actually louder. Last week, it was louder than it’s ever been,” said Azbell.

John Morgan lives in Okmulgee and has been dealing with the noise since 2018. “You can’t sleep, you can’t think, you can’t function.”

Kelco released a statement, which said in part:

“CP Kelco is working diligently to address the most recent case of elevated noise from our Okmulgee plant, which was caused by a muffler equipment failure. We are on standby, awaiting a replacement muffler to arrive from our supplier within the next few weeks”.

Okmulgee mayor Mickey Baldwin said Kelco has a temporary solution: containers stacked on the sides of its compressors. Still, it is looking for a more permanent solution.

“By the end of the year, they plan to build a permanent wall, so we’re not just talking about hundreds and thousands of dollars getting into the seven digits,” said Baldwin.

Kelco staff said they will continue working with sound engineers to reach a sustainable, long-term solution and have made progress.

Azbell said he just wants things back to the way they were.

“I just want to return back to the normalcy of okmulgee, what I moved here for,” said Azbell.

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