ANTENNA TOWER STRUGGLE
SPECIAL NOTE: In response to Lake Cedar Group negative advertising against Golden area citizens, volunteers developed a website with comprehensive information, including the land use history: www.HDTVhonestly.com/history.htm
Denver TV stations apply to "comply" with TelCom Act
Beginning in November of 1998, Denver mass media and JeffCo Public Information consistently referred to a proposed rezoning to Planned Development for a 825-foot tower, topped with a 50- by 50-foot "starmount," and 32,000 square foot industrial building as a "tower for digital television." Five TV stations—Channels 4, 6, 7, 9, and 20—would need a 500 foot tower and 5,000 sq. ft. building for DTV and analog transmission. The proposal, by Lake Cedar Group LLC, was a profit-making venture for tower and building space rental "without limitation." NIER emissions would double or triple from land previously denied for new towers by JeffCo in the 1980s.
JeffCo citizens had assumed the Lookout antenna farms would be "phased out" by 2010. The proposed addition would maintain mutilation of the scenic "Mountain Backdrop" (JeffCo taxpayers have paid $52 million to preserve) for another 50 years. Denver TV stations claimed they were "consolidating" by removing four towers (of an estimated 30 in the residential area) to build one. The channel 4 and 6 towers would be removed and existing devices would be transferred to the new tower (within the same residential community). Lake Cedar Group (LCG) did not commit a date for removal of the Channel 7 and 9 towers.
left: Public Service of Colorado microwave tower
According to LCG, the "supertower," loaded with hundreds more transmission devices, would emit less radiation—more would be less. LCG claimed they had to build the tower on Lookout Mountain to comply with the FCC "mandate" by November, 1999. Industry consultants said existing analog transmitters are likely to be removed by 2006. Meanwhile, the NAB lobbied Congress to remove analog transmission "when more than 85% of the public no longer needs it." The proposal for more could not become less until 2015 to 2025.
Thousands of citizens awaken
After LCG hosted a JeffCo-required "community feedback" meeting at Mt. Vernon Country Club on May 28, 1998, citizens prepared for battle. Awareness of RF radiation health studies, county zoning violations, and alternative tower sites grew rapidly without mass media coverage. An initial CARE Antenna Tower Committee of seven grew rapidly to 50 citizen professionals volunteering their time and expertise. Information about RF interference experienced by 30,000 Greater Golden citizens and businesses (attempting to enter the "Information Age") was passed by word-of-mouth, over the Internet and published in the local "megaphone" City and Mountain Views.
Except for brief reports on public hearings and "human interest" features focused on the citizen’s fear, Denver mass media ignored the issue. The PBS Channel 6 station manager sent letters to JeffCo "members" labeling the citizens as "hysterical."
Citizen engineers, attorneys, physicians, architects, real estate and high-tech business executives, regulatory professionals and scientists from 30 Mt. Vernon Canyon neighborhoods and the Greater Golden area tenaciously volunteered to protect their community. More than 3,000 citizens signed a petition for "no more NIER" and sent 300+ letters to JeffCo opposing the supertower.
During the summer and fall of 1998, Lookout resident and 30-year professional electrical engineer Al Hislop surveyed NIER in the community with his RF measurement equipment. He reported EPA-identified "hot" public areas continued to exceed legal limits. Hislop experienced what the EPA had described in 1986, radiation from FM signals drop dramatically at a distance from the towers, but TV signals remain unpredictably strong in residential areas at the same altitude as the transmitters. Since emission compliance is required before more devices are licensed, he reported his measurements to JeffCo and the FCC.
FCC Senior Scientist Dr. Robert Cleveland and his assistant Jerry Ulcek flew to Denver to survey Lookout in October and again in December, 1998. Cleveland verified Hislop’s measurements and recommended that FM stations "turn down their power" and RF land owners post warning signs and place plastic garden fencing around "hot" public areas.
Lookout tower users had obviously misled the FCC, which requires reports of the highest NIER readings when applying for a new or renewed license. Licensing is legally contingent upon RFR compliance. Hislop’s survey proves that JeffCo and the FCC had accepted false "self reporting" by the industry for at least 12 years (including a 1997 survey by Denver broadcasters) and were considering a proposal that would double radiation in the area. There was no threat of license or RF device removal to comply with the "rules."
After listening to public and industry testimony at two evening hearings, the JeffCo Planning Commission restricted final testimony for LCG and recommended approval of the venture on January 20, 1999. Dr. Cleveland flew a third trip to Colorado to testify in support of the FCC "clients." (Hislop and JeffCo May, 2000 surveys indicate "hot" public areas still exist.)
The state health "study"
JeffCo health director Dr. Mark Johnson asked the state health department to respond to CARE’s July, 1998 request for comprehensive research of their community.
On February 17, 1999, state epidemiologist Dr. Richard Hoffman reported five times more brain cancers than expected in census tracks that include Lookout Mountain and Golden. Denver media reported "health study not linked to towers." The survey could not assume any relationship to RF radiation without comprehensive NIER measurements. The "study" was simply cancer data required to be maintained by state law. At a JeffCo Commissioner supertower hearing on April 27, 1999, Hoffman testified, "The health survey has been misrepresented by the media."
The day after "inconclusive" Colorado health data became public, JeffCo Zoning Administrator Mary Bunn approved a FOX-31 proposal to strengthen the tower and add a DTV transmitter to double the tower’s UHF radiated power at residential Cedar Lake. Bunn ignored two legal causes to deny the proposal—NIER surveys by the FCC and CARE, and a parcel size that does not meet the required A-1 "special use" five-acres. CARE filed an appeal with the JeffCo Board of Adjustment.
Representing CARE at a BOA hearing on April 15, attorney Victor Boog documented the illegal lot size. Engineer Al Hislop documented (verbal, written, and on videotape) current NIER non-compliance at the residential Cedar Lake area. The BOA approved Bunn’s decision on April 21. Boog filed an appeal which is in process.
Citizens gain support from State and National elected representatives
On March 8, Genesee, Lookout and Mt. Vernon families (198 people) demonstrated at the county building against polluting industrial use of their neighborhoods. Mountain newspapers reported the demonstration but Denver mass media ignored the event. Responding to CARE and Golden leaders, U.S. Representative Tom Tancredo and U.S. Senator Wayne Allard sent a public letter to FCC chair William Kennard requesting policy on local government land use decisions. Kennard replied that the FCC respects local decisions.
left: Citizens demonstrate to encourage commissioners to fight against FCC preemption.
On April 19, 1999, the Colorado House of Representatives approved a bill, proposed by Representative (Radiologist) Dr. John Witwer and State Senator Bryan Sullivant, endorsing comprehensive health research on Lookout. Denver broadcast executives, hired "consultants" and lobbyists persuaded a Colorado Senate committee to kill the bill on April 28.
Hundreds of citizen professionals—the Golden (founded in 1860) City Council, Jefferson County Board of Education (largest Colorado school district), professors at Colorado School of Mines (founded in Golden in 1874), Seattle bioengineer researcher Dr. Henry Lai (who testified that NIER fragments DNA), former EPA regulator Dr. Roger Mattson, and seven physicians— testified in opposition to LCG’s supertower at county hearings (attended by 300 to 500 citizens) on April 27, May 27 and June 29. JeffCo Commissioners Sheehan, Holloway and Lawrence denied it on July 13, 1999.
Reasons for denial were incompatibility with "residential uses in the surrounding area… the JeffCo TelCom Plan… the Central Mountains Community Plan… does not comply with zoning resolutions… is not in the best interest of the health, safety, morals, convenience, order, prosperity, and welfare of the residents of Jefferson County."
left: CARE families demonstrate at JeffCo's "Taj Mahal", the County Administration and Courts building.
The Commissioners also declared that alternative sites were available and not considered by the applicants. Noncompliance meant exceeding NIER limits, setback requirements, and existing zoning violations.
Lake Cedar Group filed an appeal in Colorado District Court on August 12. The court accepted Genesee attorney Scott Albertson’s filing of CARE as an intervener.
Meanwhile, the citizens discovered that LCG had not complied with funding an environmental impact study required by the NEPA and the NHPA when federal funded projects impact a local community. LCG did not report five listings on the National Register of Historic Place with the FCC application. Millions of dollars in RF spectrum, given by Congress free to broadcasters, represents "federal funding" of taxpayer dollars. CARE filed a petition with the FCC to require compliance with the NEPA and NHPA. The petition was ignored.
"If PBS won’t do it, who will?"
After two years of videotaping hearings and interviews, Emmy-award winning producer Len Aitken completed a 56-minute documentary, "Broadcast Blues," about the tower struggle in December, 1999. It reveals compelling questions that Americans have not before known to ask. All TV networks rejected solicitation to broadcast it. PBS "Frontline" said it is too political.
On April, 2000, Denver PBS affiliate KRMA-Channel 6 sent another letter to "members" asking them to lobby JeffCo and the FCC to approve the only possible DTV tower site— Lookout Mountain. Disregarding NIER emissions exceeding limits from the public media tower, KRMA renewed a 10-year tower rental contract with public FM stations KCFR and KUVO in the year 2000. Radio station managers claim the FCC frequency allocation requires transmission with KRMA. The media has not informed the public that frequency conflicts are addressed by the FCC in response to client requests.
Denver Broadcasters ask FCC to overrule JeffCo
LCG attorneys filed a petition for the FCC to preempt JeffCo Commissioner’s supertower denial on November 2, 1999. CARE attorneys Carney and Albertson flew to Washington D.C. to meet with the FCC in December. LCG filed an "alternative" tower site comparison with the FCC in March, 2000 that ignores consequences to citizens.
On April 10, 2000, The FCC invited public comment on the petition. On April 27, the Colorado legislature adopted a Joint Resolution recommending FCC denial of preempting local land use decisions. Colorado Senator Allard, and Representatives Tancredo, Joel Hefley, Mark Udall, Diana DeGette and Scott McInnis sent a joint letter urging respect for local decisions.
The National Association of Counties (representing 210 million Americans) and the National League of Cities (representing 17,000 municipalities) vehemently oppose federal override of local control "Any preemption action by the FCC of state and local zoning and land use ordinances violates the commission’s authority and the Tenth Amendment of the United States Constition." As of August, 2000, the FCC has not ruled on the petition.
Citizens continue to fight industrial pollution of their residential community
Funded by citizen donations (in addition to the taxes), CARE assembled comprehensive timelines of FCC and JeffCo permits for Lookout over the past 50 years. The citizens found 32 JeffCo electrical permits (required since the 1940s) for an FCC estimated 450 transmission devices. Numerous towers, antennas, microwaves and broadcast transmitters were added to land zoned Mountain Resident 1 in 1956, without JeffCo permits.
CARE attorneys Deb Carney and Scott Albertson filed requests for JeffCo to enforce zoning violations by channels 2 (Tribune), 4 (CBS), 6 ("Rocky Mountain PBS"), 9 (Gannett) and FM stations (owned by Tribune and Clear Channel). They reported a permit, provided without due process, for Clear Channel Corporation to place a fence in taxpayer-owned JeffCo Open Space to protect the public from excessive KHIH-FM emissions. CARE also discovered that some of the KHIH building is on JeffCo Open Space land. After Carney reported this to the JeffCo Open Space Advisory Committee, the fence was removed in March, 2000. The public "hot spots" remain.
JeffCo officials are investigating complex (and expensive) compliance enforcement of an industry with a documented pattern of ignoring both federal and local laws, or require removal of non-conforming industrial use of the historic residential area.
JeffCo Administration and Courts Building, fondly referred to by citizens as the "Taj Mahal;" with Lookout Mountain antenna farms one mile west and 2,000 feet higher.
Jefferson County can require amortized removal of this industrial-polluting use of residential-zoned land. State law supposts time-limited, non-conforming use that produces a "continuing abatable nuisance" (junk yards, shooting ranges, billboards, hog farming, etc.) The law does not support indefinite continuation and the right to continue does not allow additions and extensions, especially when there is a negative impact on the health, safety and welfare of citizens.
In July, 2000, CARE volunteers discovered more dishonest behavior, again by PBS Channel 6. The station engineer gained a permit, signed by JeffCo planner Tim Carl dated August 2, 1999 (20 days after denial of the supertower) to "replace microwave antenna with same type of antenna." The new high-power device is to relay DTV signals from a new transmitter on the Denver station’s roof. Multi-channel, interactive DTV is not the same service as analog.
While most tower owners across the country prefer the "prudent business practice" of operating high-power broadcast transmitters removed from populated areas, Denver broadcasters insist on continuing their perceived grandfathered right to pollute Greater Golden families and businesses.
"Big Brother"
Mega-media-mergers have placed unprecedented power with a few that control most television, radio, and print. Citizens are not people any more. They are consumers.
The only comprehensive, investigative mass media print report on this struggle was a cover story in Westword on April 6, 2000. The only balanced television report was produced by Extra, which broadcast the segment on April 20, 1999 when Denver stations had cut programming to cover the Columbine tragedy. The segment included interviews with CARE leaders and Chef Julia Child saying, "People are too precious to be used as corporate pawns…"
Please see Antenna Tower Main Page for additional articles on this subject.
• Many documents and details are available at www.c-a-r-e.org.