AP NEWS: Suit Seeks Moratorium on New Cellphone Towers at Lake Tahoe

Suit seeks moratorium on new cellphone towers at Lake Tahoe

By SCOTT SONNER

Online link to full AP news article

RENO, Nev. (AP) — A federal lawsuit seeking a moratorium on construction of new cellphone towers at Lake Tahoe claims Verizon Wireless and regional regulators are failing to adequately consider potential harm to public health and the environment under antiquated rules that turn a blind eye to modern technology.

A local resident and conservation groups who filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Sacramento say they’re trying to protect the same majestic views Mark Twain wrote about in the 1860s at the mountain lake straddling the California-Nevada line.

They accuse Verizon and the Tahoe Regional Protection Agency of engaging in the kind of shenanigans Huckleberry Finn and other Twain fictional characters used to dupe unsuspecting victims.

The lawsuit alleges Verizon and its local agent, Sacramento-Valley Limited Partnership, laid the groundwork for the most recently proposed 112-foot (34-meter) tower in South Lake Tahoe, California with false promises to bring a high-speed broadband network to everyone at the lake.

“In what appears to be a classic `bait and switch’ scheme, the telecoms had promised fiber-optic infrastructure at Tahoe in exchange for massive subsidies but now push their wireless agenda for greater profits,” the suit says.

“The telecoms routinely claim that further facilities are justified to meet a ‘coverage gap’ and provide for additional capacity, but they have actually created that `gap’ and lack of capacity themselves by failing to provide the promised fiber network,” it said.

Read the full AP news story here https://apnews.com/article/public-health-mark-twain-health-sacramento-lawsuits-6069c0d4514816e7bcc72feefbad33f8

https://ehtrust.org/ap-news-suit-seeks-moratorium-on-new-cellphone-towers-at-lake-tahoe/ Source: Environmental Health Trust