Southern Maine residents tired of getting woken up by trash haulers clanking dumpsters may finally get some sleep soon, at least in one town.

A new noise law on the Feb. 11 Kennebunk town-meeting ballot would forbid emptying trash bins during the night.

The noise ordinance does have some exceptions, but there’s no sympathy for trash collectors.

Church bells, for instance, would generally be exempt for religious services as long as they don’t sound for longer than a half hour.

Maine noise ordinances run the gamut. Cumberland, Rangeley, Oakland, Old Orchard Beach, Augusta and Portland all have different ones, depending on location and situation.

The ordinances generally address noise levels as they relate to different times of the day.

The federal government first began telling people what they could do with their noise in 1972.

Environmentalists complained to Congress back then that Americans were losing their hearing due to too much noise, dubbing the concept “noise pollution.”

Before the environmental lobby gained power, nobody made a peep about regulating noise.

The trigger in Kennebunk for a government crackdown on noise was all-hours dumpster pickups waking people up at night.

The law would make noise unlawful if it were, well, just too loud.

Cops could avoid having to use a decibel meter – which they have to use now to prove a violation – to determine the validity of noise complaints.

But if someone makes a noise complaint and the basis of it can’t be determined the town will hire a sound engineer to come to the scene.

An ordinance committee spent months tossing around ideas to clear up what constitutes noise.

They came up with the words “plainly audible” to help determine define “noise.”

Complaints about music, ATVs, trash bins and other noise have been increasing, town officials said.

Selectman Bill Ward, meanwhile, has questioned the words “plainly audible,” wondering whether the courts would understand the phrase.