On Tuesday, July 9, 2013, prior to the start of a Newberry CSD Special Meeting to make attonements recommended by the Grand Jury, the CSD Board of Directors was requested to consider calling an Emergency Meeting to vote on sending a letter to the county's Land Use Services voicing disapproval of a proposed 10-story cell tower.  An application was going before a Zoning Administrator on July 11, 2013 for approval of an Initial Study and Negative Declaration (the permit).

    CSD president, Robert Royalty, not apparently wanting to hear anything more about the request, interrupted the requestor after three minutes.  The request had fallen upon deaf ears; quite literally deaf.  Directors Snively and Ridler were present but said nothing; directors Owens and Williams were not present.

    The permit was approved at the July 11, 2013 hearing.  The appeal period ends July 22, 2013.

    Blotter's rendition of the 97-foot height of a Eucalyptus cell tower. →

    Cell towers are very common.  We see them everywhere.  So why is the Community Alliance fussing over Verizon placing a ten-story cellular tower that will improve cellular service to Newberry Springs?

    The Community Alliance's concern is over what isn't known about the project.  This installation has been planned for some time in secrecy.  The Newberry Community Church upon whose property the tower will be built has been silent about it.  The county's Land Use Services has not extended the courtesy of any notice to the Newberry CSD nor anyone else that is not required by law.

    As previously published in the Blotter on July 2, 2013, the community wasn't aware of the cell tower proposal.

    The tower will be a major structure within Newberry Springs that the community has had no input on.

    The placement of the tower makes it clear that it will principally service Interstate-40 for miles with Newberry as only a secondary benefit.  Highway service and the ten-story height of the tower presumes a high radiation output.

    Besides the bad aesthetics of a 97-foot tower being covered to look like a 100-foot Eucalyptus tree (an insult to the eye and Eucalyptus trees everywhere), the principal concern is the hazard of radiation and the electric magnetic field that the approved cell equipment will create.  Hazardous radiation is the dirty secret of the telecommunication industry.

    The principle key role of a government entity, including the Newberry CSD, is the safety and protection of its citizens.  Therefore, it is shocking that the CSD board chose to simply ignore a very real concern of its citizens' health and safety.  When a local government entity becomes so irresponsible and fails in its key role, it is time for it to be abolished.

    According to Ron Frame, Newberry Springs field representative for the county's First District supervisor, Robert Lovingood, Lovingood had previously requested better communication and community notice from the county's Land Use Services department after the county's embarr assing public relations fiasco on the solar plant on Mountain View Road.

    Frame voiced surprise about learning of the new proposed cell tower and indicated that Lovingood would again ask for better transparency from Land Use Services.  Under Supervisor Lovingood's earlier request, Land Use Services should be sending notices of proposed major installations in Newberry Springs to the Newberry CSD for posting in the community.

    Cancer rates are rapidly rising in the United States for unknown reasons.  The reason may lie in exposure to multiple environmental elements; but judge for yourself if cellular technology may be a contributing culprit.  Thanks to one of our viewers, Joseph, here are a few facts from a legal website he introduced us to.

    In establishing a safe radiation threshold for radio frequency radiation from cell towers in Canada, the Canadian Medical Officer of Health met with 300 public health officials from throughout the world which resulted in the recommended reduction of permissible limit for Cell Tower RF radiation to 0.1 w/m2 (the same standard as used in Austria).   In the United States, the FCC's safe threshold is 5,800 times more radiation!

    The safety limit for radio frequency/microwave radiation established in the United States is set at a level far above that of other world nations.  Would this have anything to do with the telecommunications industry spending $400 million annually in lobbying efforts?

    It is now known that human cell structure does not need radiation with sufficient energy to ionize atoms or molecules to distort cells by thermal heating; but that even low power electromagnetic radiation with only sufficient energy for excitation can mutilate cells, cause DNA damage, and carcinogenesis.

    The FCC has become a lobbyist itself for the industry allowing the cell tower operators, for instance, to self monitor themselves.  The FCC does not track where all cell towers are placed nor does the FCC check cell towers for radiation compliance.  The FCC depends upon an honor system whereby cell tower paperwork is submitted to them by the operators; documents that sometimes are not sent at all.

    Once a cell tower is built, the operator signs off that it meets the specs; however, after initial transmitter installation, cell tower operators can add additional transmitters upon their towers without concern of any FCC involvement.  So a cell tower site can be emitting many multiples of the U.S. radiation limit and there is no FCC monitoring or control.

    Some large cell towers, such as the one approved in Newberry Springs, have portions of the tower subleased to other carriers; whereby three or four additional carriers will add their equipment, each which could be at or above government maximum safety radiation levels.

    The above video confirms that a number of Epidemiology studies have found that even very low levels of radio radiation and EMF can activate DNA to protein synthesis, that results in cancer from cell damage and DNA mutation.  Some of the many cancers includes breast cancers and childhood Leukemia.

    Therefore, should an individual conclude that the Newberry Community Church's cell tower is dangerous, how far should one remain away from the tower?  The above video references the Sutro Tower Study that showed negative impacts 3.5-miles away (but the Sutro study includes multiple transmitters and radio spectrums).  But even when scaled down, the new Verizon tower should not only have a terrible impact upon the adjacent Newberry Community Church but also possibly a cumulative effect upon nearby residents.

    The Senior Center is located only .7 miles away; and the Newberry Springs Elementary School is 1.2 miles; where students will sit for years accumulatively absorbing the radiation from the Newberry Community Church's tower site.

    So you don't need to be concerned about the cell tower if you trust your government; live in La La land; or have a death wish.  If on the other hand you desire a healthy long life, then there is bad news for you.  Your government isn't looking out for your well being.  Wearing an aluminum foil hat won't help you.  And if you are worshiping at the Newberry Community Church, you may be seeing Jesus sooner than necessary.

    So when the telecommunications industry tells you that cell towers are safe, understand the standard, the source of the standard, and what the "safe" statement is based upon.  Know that by its very function, no cellular transmitter in the United States is safe.

    Whether an individual desires to believe in the Community Alliance's rational over cell tower radiation is up to the individual; but the Community Alliance has taken the position that the Newberry Community Church cell tower could have been placed in a far safer location.

    Despite a very short notice, the Newberry Springs Community Alliance did what the CSD refused to do, the Community Alliance sent a four page letter that was entered into the public record opposing the project at the July 11, 2013 hearing before a Zoning Administrator.

    Unfortunately, no single community group will stop these adverse projects from coming into Newberry Springs; it takes a cooperative effort.  If the safety of families and children are going to be protected, it requires community activism.  Currently, Newberry Springs is receiving what it deserves. . . hazardous sludge, radiation, and other poisons because the community, as reflected by its CSD board, just doesn't care.