28 replies to this topic

[VicHockeyFan]

People are stupid. Now, before some whack comes on here and says "Ya, it probably has no health issues, but it's better to err on the side of safety" let me point this out: Erring on the side of safety, by limiting speed limits to 30kmh WILL save lives, but I don't see you calling for that kind of action.

Marlatt said the effects of exposure have been reviewed by Health Canada, and that the tower would give "less exposure than sleeping next to an alarm clock, watching television or using a cordless phone."

Tower in North Saanich turned down
Council votes against proposal for 45-metre cellphone facility
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Font: * * * * Kim Westad, Times Colonist
Published: Tuesday, January 09, 2007
A controversial cell tower proposed for North Saanich was given a clear thumbs-down by North Saanich council at a standing-room-only meeting last night.

Residents clapped and cheered as council voted unanimously against the proposal by Bell Mobility for a 45-metre tall communications tower on private property at 11074 West Saanich Rd. in Deep Cove.

But council's disapproval of the project doesn't necessarily mean it's over. The approval process for communications towers in Canada is set out in federal legislation. Companies who want the towers to improve or provide cell service -- Bell said another tower is needed to improve service to users in the Deep Cove area -- must consult with local governments.

But Industry Canada could still decide to approve the tower, particularly since it's on private land, although the federal government does consider local input seriously.

Council voted to send a letter to Bell, Industry Canada and Health Canada to say as strongly as possible that they don't want the cell tower at that site.

Residents ranging from electrical engineers to teachers and parents to a day-care operator packed council chambers to voice concern. The key issue was safety. Many questioned the long-term impact on people who have exposure to non-thermal electromagnetic radiation. A petition with 471 signatures opposed to the tower in Deep Cove was presented.

Bell proposed this summer that the tower be placed at the North Saanich fire hall, but many in the community were opposed. Bell came back with a proposal that it be erected a few blocks away on private land, at 11074 West Saanich Rd., near the intersection of Wain Road. That's about 400 metres from a day-care centre and the Deep Cove Elementary School, which has 400 students.

"The Playhouse Day Care has been in operation since 1962. There has never been an issue that has caused us, the parents and children as much concern as this," day-care operator Walt Lord said to applause from the 150-strong crowd. "What have we done to deserve this?"

The safety of the 89 children who attend the day care is at risk, Lord said, as well as other residents within 400 metres of the proposed tower.

Residents are also concerned about the visual impact of the tower, what it will do to property values, and question whether it is a hazard to nearby air traffic and migratory birds. After concerns about the fire hall site, Marlatt said Bell looked for another suitable site where the tower wouldn't be as visible.

Bell has three towers within five kilometres of the proposed site, but needs another on higher land to improve its service to cellular phone users in Deep Cove, said Chad Marlatt, real estate co-ordinator for Bell Mobility. Marlatt said the effects of exposure have been reviewed by Health Canada, and that the tower would give "less exposure than sleeping next to an alarm clock, watching television or using a cordless phone."

Rogers has approached Bell to put antennas on the tower as well, Marlatt said, indicating the need for improved service in the area.

The tower would be screened by Douglas fir trees, and be set back 50 metres from the road. Five metres of the tower would be visible above the trees, and would be painted green, he said. Marlatt said Bell is open to co-locating with other carriers to lessen the impact on communities.

Council's letter against the proposal will also be sent to the Union of B.C. Municipalities, to see if they can increase municipal involvement in such applications and approvals.

[G-Man]

This line...

Residents are also concerned about the visual impact of the tower, what it will do to property values, and question whether it is a hazard to nearby air traffic and migratory birds. After concerns about the fire hall site, Marlatt said Bell looked for another suitable site where the tower wouldn't be as visible.

Should have read like this:

Residents are really only concerned about the visual impact of the tower, what it will do to property values. They plan to also question whether it is a hazard to nearby air traffic and migratory birds because this coupled with their pretend health concerns make it seem more legitimate.

[Holden West]

Hazard to air traffic?! Dude, if you're flying an airplane low enough in a wooded area that a cell phone tower is in your way, that's the least of your worries.

They disguise towers as trees (evergreen or palm) everywhere else in the world so they can do it here too.

[G-Man]

Hey wait a second

MY ALARM CLOCK IS KILLING ME? I KNEW IT!!

Well if Health Canada says so!

Alright who is in on the lawsuit??

[m0nkyman]

HEIGHT KILLS!

[aastra]

Remember this from back in 2001? CHEK TV also covered it. Makes me wonder whatever came of it:

Probe Pending as Strange Electric Phenomena Reported in Victoria

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

COLWOOD, B.C. -- For two years, residents of this Victoria suburb have been plagued by garage doors that open without warning, sprinklers that come on at will and radios that play several stations at once.

Chris Burke says his electronically controlled bed has even developed a nasty habit of folding up while he and his wife are asleep.

"The legs start to come up and the head starts to come up," Burke said. "That's pretty scary when you are in the middle of a sleep."

The Canadian government has appointed a retired University of Victoria professor to look into the odd electric phenomena that began after a pair of 200-foot transmission towers went up about 50 feet from some houses.

Residents said videocassette recorders and television sets went on spontaneously and one said a brass bed grew warm from the radio waves.

Former public administration professor Rod Dobell will review how Industry Canada policy was followed in approving construction of the broadcast towers on Triangle Mountain without public meetings or consultation with the municipality.

Melanie Roberts, an Industry Canada spokeswoman, said the agency has a mandate to expand cellular phone and broadcast coverage across the country but often runs into opposition.

"People usually don't want towers in their back yard, but they want access to services," she said. "We are the party trying to ensure that both of these needs gets addressed."

There has been a transmission tower on the mountain since the 1960s, long before significant residential development in the area or the incorporation of Colwood, but the original is now gone.

The new towers are used to broadcast three Victoria FM radio stations and are also supposed to improve cellular telephone communication, but Burke says cell phone signals are still often poor in the area.

He now unplugs his electric bed, and he and his wife have given up listening to the radio.

"While you are listening to one station, you are getting overrun by another. It's just not fun any more," he said. "It's very frustrating."

Burke said a neighbor's sprinkler system won't come on when it's supposed to but will when it isn't.

Town Council member Ernie Robertson, chairman of Colwood's Transmission Towers Citizens Committee, said the council has received dozens of complaints.

He said he is pleased that Canadian Industry Minister Alan Rock will review policy issues surrounding the towers while Dobell is investigating the matter.

"(Ottawa) has a consultation process," Robertson said. "They didn't follow it."

Source: http://www.seattlepi.com

[aastra]

When I first moved into the building I live in now I was able to pick up cell phone conversations with my black & white TV. More correctly, I was lucky if I could actually hear the audio of the program I was watching. Most of the time all I could get was cell phone chatter (or phone chatter of one sort or another, whatever it was). You name it, I heard people talking about it.

Since upgrading to a new TV and new antenna I haven't had the problem. There's a Camosack Manor sort of situation where I am. Highrise on a hill, with all sorts of gear on the roof.

[VicHockeyFan]

Mt. Baker interferes with migratory bird routes. Let's level it.

[VicHockeyFan]

They disguise towers as trees (evergreen or palm) everywhere else in the world so they can do it here too.

That's no tree – it's a tower in disguise
And they help to make cell phone calls reliable

http://www.delawareo... ... /1006/NEWS

Aren't there some people in Dean Park area upset about the number of float planes flying low over them? Maybe they'll be happy to have a tower that interferes with aircraft routes. Put one up there that beams down to Deep Cove.

[aastra]

Pretty sure Mt. Baker was there first.

One of the people in that Colwood article "said a brass bed grew warm from the radio waves." I remember the CHEK reporter repeated this claim.

And yet we never heard any follow-up.

Could energy from a transmission tower actually do that? If you actually believed the tower was responsible, I can't understand why you wouldn't sell the house ASAP.

[VicHockeyFan]

Pretty sure Mt. Baker was there first.

Before birds? Really? I'll look this up.

[VicHockeyFan]

The present-day cone of Mount Baker is relatively young, perhaps less than 30,000 years old, but it sits atop a similar older volcanic cone called Black Buttes volcano which was active between 500,000 and 300,000 years ago. Much of Mount Baker's earlier geological record was eroded away during the last ice age (which culminated 15,000-20,000 years ago), by thick ice sheets that filled the valleys and covered much of the region. In the last 14,000 years, the area around the mountain has been largely ice free, but the mountain itself remains heavily mantled with snow and ice.

[VicHockeyFan]

Birds are categorised as a biological class, Aves. The earliest known species of this class is Archaeopteryx lithographica, from the Late Jurassic period. Modern phylogenies place birds in the dinosaur clade Theropoda. According to the current consensus, Aves and a sister group, the order Crocodilia, together are the sole living members of an unranked "reptile" clade, the Archosauria.

[VicHockeyFan]

The Jurassic Period is a major unit of the geologic timescale that extends from about 199.6 ± 0.6 Ma (million years ago), at the end of the Triassic to 145.4 ± 4.0 Ma, at the beginning of the Cretaceous. As with other geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end of the period are well identified, but the exact dates are uncertain by 5 - 10 million years. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of the Mesozoic era, also known as the Age of Dinosaurs. The start of the period is marked by the major Triassic-Jurassic extinction event.

[VicHockeyFan]

The birds have a case.

[aastra]

Indeed, there were birds before there was Mt. Baker. But were there migratory birds during the ice age periods? In other words, didn't the birds check out of these parts for a long period before they came back?

I admit I don't know what the flying birds did when North America was covered in ice. Did they die off? Did they head south?

[Holden West]

^Silly goose, don't you know the universe is only 6,000 years old?

We should pile everything people complain about in Victoria, including this cell tower, the arena sign etc. into a giant stack and call it Mt. Kwitcher*****in.

[VicHockeyFan]

The next Ice Age is going to lower all our property values.

[VicHockeyFan]

^Silly goose, don't you know the universe is only 6,000 years old?

You been hanging with Stockwell Day again?

[G-Man]

Migratory routes around Mt. Baker?

I claim no reponsibility for this threads' current trajectory. However I still feel guilty about the Halifax CMA debacle from yesterday.