Neighborhood meeting set for Sunday.
(Note: I live about a mile from the site of this proposed wireless antenna.)
Whoever said, “You can’t fight city hall,” ought to reconsider. City hall is easy compared to keeping wireless and cell phone antennas out of neighborhoods.
Anne Trudeau of RespectPDX.org has learned this the hard way. The group is trying to block attempts by Clearwire to install a wireless internet and phone antenna on a utility pole in Northeast Portland at 37th and Fremont.
Most of the time, these projects don’t get a whole lot of attention. But in this case, RespectPDX has managed to shake up things a bit at city hall, and get the attention of the Oregonian, KGW, and the Portland Observer. They’ve even brought in an award winning documentarian with major mainstream creds from CBS News and 60 Minutes.
But all these efforts may not make a difference. Because as the demand for more wireless access increases around the country, even as questions grow about safety, the laws governing these installations are stuck more than 20-years in the past.
I met with Trudeau and documentary director Talal Jabari earlier this week. Jabari’s film, “Full Signal“, was shown the night before at the Hollywood Theatre to almost 200 people. Trudeau says theatre managers told her it’s unusual to see such a big crowd for an indy documentary.
“Full Signal” looks at the rising use of cellular technology around the world. According to the film, about half of the world’s population owns a cell phone, and just about everyone lives near a cell phone tower. It makes the case that as cell and other wireless technologies grow, we’re putting ourselves at a greater risk of cancer and other health problems.
Its worst case example is the village of Issifya in Northern Israel. Because the hilltop village overlooks the surrounding region, it’s home to some 70 cell phone antennas, many of them hidden from public view or camouflaged. Jabari says after the towers went in, people living around them started getting sick and dying from increased rates of cancer.
Not That Any Of This Matters To The Law
Trudeau and Jabari rattle off the names of several studies they say show harmful effects from the radio frequencies produced by wireless towers. They admit that wireless industry has its own set of studies, ones that show the technology is safe.
“Studies can be hard to prove one way or another,” says Jabari, “but increases of illness across the board is an indicator there’s a problem. That’s why we’re saying proceed on the side of caution.”
But none of this matters to the federal government.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act gives the Federal Communications Commission authority on wireless technologies. It prohibits local governments from regulating towers “on the basis of the environmental impacts of radio frequency emissions.” So a federal law, written more than two decades ago, says local officials can’t even think about the possible health impacts of these relatively new technologies.
A document posted on the city of Portland’s website says it can’t deny or move a tower because of human health concerns. ”In the past, Portland Mayors and Commissioners have also had health concerns,” it says, “but their hands have been tied.”
Last fall, the FCC issued new regulations reinforcing its power, giving local governments fixed deadlines to act on applications for wireless antennas and towers.
The concerns of RespectPDX has obviously hit a nerve at City Hall. This week, Commissioners voted to join with Arlington, Texas in a lawsuit challenging the authority of the FCC. Last year, it passed a resolution urging the feds to seriously study potential health concerns of wireless technologies.
David Soloos, Assistant Director of the Office of Cable Communications and Franchise Management, says Portland hasn’t seen a new cell tower in about five years. Instead, the city has decided to go with smaller, but more numerous, wireless antennas that are less powerful. Often times these are mounted on existing utility poles.
This strategy has worked in part because wireless companies haven’t opposed it.
What regulations the city does have are supposed to keep wireless antennas out of residential areas as much as possible. The regs put priority on placing them along highways and in business areas. But Soloos says growing demand for faster, better internet and phone services means wireless companies are going to want more antennas to serve customers. And to do that, it means putting them in neighborhoods.
Portland has some authority over aesthetics, such as the appearance of the equipment and how much noise it produces. But beyond that, as long as the antennas operate below 1000 watts of power Soloos says, “We can’t do anything about it.”
The Next Step
Trudeau says the status of the wireless antenna proposed for Northeast Portland is in a state of limbo. RespectPDX is using a procedural tactic to stall for more time while it tries to build a coalition of neighborhood groups to prevent wireless expansion. The Beaumont-Wilshire Neighborhood Association is already on board, saying it opposes the antenna because of health and noise issues.
And because federal law gives citizens such few options, Jabari says stalling tactics might be the only way for groups like RespectPDX to have an impact. He says people need to pour over applications looking for errors, to make technology companies attend more meetings, to file complaints about noise coming from current antennas and towers.
“The cell industry has a lot of money but not unlimited resources,” says Jabari. Delays will drive up the costs of putting in more towers. “You’ve got to make it too expensive for them.”
RespectPDX holds its next meeting 7pm Sunday night at Bethany Lutheran Church at NE 37th Ave. and Skidmore. This is not a NIMBY issue says Trudeau. With hundreds more new antennas expected over the next few years, she says, “This is a city wide problem affecting everyone.”
Another showing of “Full Signal” is scheduled for 7:30pm, March 15th, at the Pacific Northwest College of Art, 1241 NW Johnson, Portland. The event is free.
Monday: What we don’t know about health impacts.
Respect PDX will hopefully develop into a city/statewide organization but they need to not give in to power hungry people who rise to the top and alienate interested parties. they are feeling the pinch of what most political organizations come to when personalities clash. camus said that individual action is the best way to make a difference, not through groups. hopefully this group will blossom and not sink through the individual action of the few.