'It's Unbelievable': 200+ Neighbors Sign Petition Over Noise From Hauppauge Industrial Park

HAUPPAUGE, NY — Neighbors across Commack, Hauppauge, and Smithtown Pines are making their voices heard to address the issue of constant disruptive sound they say is coming from the Hauppauge Industrial Park.

A Change.org petition launched by Commack resident Kristen Mahon has gathered 220 signatures in just over a week.

Mahon has lived in Commack with her husband for the past two years and said what began as a faint, unfamiliar ringing in early March has quickly escalated into a persistent quality-of-life issue for residents living nearby.

“We enjoyed a lot of peace and quiet until about the beginning of March, when they started this new ringing tone,” Mahon said to Patch. “After talking to neighbors, everybody agreed that there's definitely something new that changed in the industrial park, since nobody's ever experienced this before.”

The Hauppauge Industrial Park, officially known as the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge, is one of the largest industrial parks in the United States and a major economic hub in Suffolk County.

Mahon said the noise has not been intermittent or occasional, but rather a daily presence that fluctuates in intensity depending on conditions but never fully disappears.

“It is happening all day,” she said. “It is much louder at night, when all the other ambient noise is gone, and there are no cars. You notice it more at night, but it does ring out pretty much all day. It’s just sometimes you hear it more based on the wind and the weather, but unfortunately, it's been every day so far.”

In the petition, residents describe the noise as a “disruptive tonal ringing and constant rumble that is present 24 hours a day,” saying it has made it difficult to sleep and function normally. The petition states that the sound “penetrates through homes and disrupts the long-held peace” of neighborhoods that residents say were once quiet.

Mahon said the impact has extended beyond annoyance into disruption of daily life. Working from home, she has been forced to change routines, relocate within her house, and rely on artificial noise to maintain focus.

“I’ve taken to moving to the other side of the house, and I put on an ambience machine to stop my brain from focusing on that and get back to work,” she said. “I’ve actually spent some nights away from my home when it was really bad, because you could hear it so much from my master bedroom that I had to relocate sleeping.”

Mahon began documenting the issue herself, purchasing a decibel meter, recording audio and video, and attempting to trace the source.

Through that process, she believes the noise may be tied to industrial equipment—specifically air purification or filtration systems used by nearby pharmaceutical companies.

“All the ones that we think are pharmaceutical companies, and the system that we think is making the noise is their air purification system used inside,” she said.

Those concerns align with what residents told Patch. Longtime Hauppauge resident and school teacher Kathy Tonry said the sound is loud enough to be heard over televisions and sound machines.

“I've lived in the same neighborhood since I was three, and the noise has been going on probably since COVID, but there are a couple of different noises going on in the industrial park,” Tonry said. “This latest one is the loudest.”

Tonry said several residents have taken matters into their own hands, driving through the industrial park, recording video, and attempting to identify the source. The intensity of the sound, she said, has been difficult to ignore.

“I drive around there, and I look for it,” she said. “This particular one is 160 Commerce Drive. I've taken videos, I've driven in there, and I've videotaped and taken pictures. It is so loud that I can hear it over my TV, over my sound machine in my room. It's unbelievable how loud it is. It sounds like an airplane is hovering over my house.”

Like Mahon, Tonry has also helped organize neighbors, launching a Facebook group that has grown rapidly as awareness spreads. Residents said efforts to resolve the issue through official channels have been inconsistent. While public safety has reportedly issued summonses in the past, the newest noise has persisted.

“People always told us to call public safety, but then it just keeps going on and on,” Tonry said. “We don't know how to stop it.”

The Town of Smithtown Public Safety Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mahon said Public Safety communicated to her that there was an ongoing investigation.

Residents say they hope local officials can help restore what they describe as the peace and quiet their neighborhoods once had—and ensure the issue does not become a permanent condition.

“Something has to be done,” Tonry said.

Both residents plan to attend the upcoming Smithtown Town Board meeting on April 7, though they noted the daytime scheduling presents a barrier for many affected homeowners.

“They make it from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. during the day, and so nobody can go,” Tonry said. “I’m lucky I can go.”

Residents say the goal is to bring visibility to the issue and push for a formal investigation that identifies the source and leads to a resolution before the problem becomes permanent.

“I'm just hoping for an investigation to figure out where it's coming from, and then them to work with the company to get some sort of sound resolution,” Mahon said.