Residents of Rumford are worried about a mysterious noise coming from a paper mill.

RUMFORD (WGME) — Over the past few days, residents in Rumford and Mexico have been affected by a loud and mysterious noise coming from a paper mill.

They say it ranged from a high-pitched screech to the sound of a jet engine, and it happened at any time of the day or night.

“Just, oh my god. How will I sleep tonight? Katie Williams, who lives near the paper mill in Rumford, said: “Everyone is complaining about it.”

The city’s noise ordinance doesn’t cover industrial noise, but three days later, some neighbors say it should.

“It was a ridiculously loud, high-pitched screech,” said Mary Hickey, who lives near the paper mill in Rumford.

“You can hear it all over town,” Williams said. “It’s all night.”

“It stopped about an hour ago,” said Peggy Sue Townsend, who lives near the paper mill in Rumford.

Townsend recorded the noise.

She lives near the mill and has never heard it sound like that before.

“The only thing I could think about was something like a motor, a high-pitched motor that just wouldn’t stop. And I just couldn’t get any relief from it,” Townsend said. “And I thought, ‘When is this going to stop?’ It was enough to just drive you crazy.”

“I mean, it lasted three days,” Hickey said. “Continuously. There was no consolation.”

“It’s very loud,” said Rumford City Manager George O’Keefe.

O’Keefe also heard the noise.

“It sounded like a jet engine,” O’Keefe said.

CBS13 called the plant to find out what caused the noise. We were told this was a normal launch.

Neighbors say they never heard back from the mill or the city.

“You are a victim of this noise,” Hickey said. “And it seems like no one can help.”

“We don’t like them getting to that level of noise,” O’Keefe said.

He did hear back from ND Paper’s environmental compliance manager, who said one of the large boilers had failed, shutting down the mill and paper machines.

He says, “Due to the imbalance of steam, the mill produced steam almost continuously throughout this period of time.”

“This resulted in a prolonged release of steam that was quite loud,” O’Keefe said.

He says the release of steam and the restart of the plant’s turbine engine caused both loud noises.

The plant says that work has now stabilized, engine and steam noise has decreased.