From: Erin Strandjord
To: Neysa Hinton; Diana Rich; Una JM Glass; Patrick Slayter; Sarah Glade Gurney; City Council; Mary Gourley; Lawrence McLaughlin; Dante Del Prete
Subject: Subject: Save our water meters! OPT-IN! Agenda #15 on Feb 15 Date: Friday, February 11, 2022 8:57:28 PM
Dear Mayor Patrick Slayter, Sebastopol city council members and staff, I support an OPT-IN policy. A pay to opt-out policy is punitive, discriminatory, and ignores Sebastopol’s General Plan that calls for community wide opt out of smart meters: "Action CHW 4h: Support efforts to approach and encourage the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to allow the City to opt out of public utility wireless data transmission systems (such as smart meters)."
Sebastopol banned smart meters in 2013, for “matters of public health, safety and consumer protection…”
Sebastopol’s Telecommunications Ordinance 1123 requires public notice and a planning commission review.
Sebastopol’s General Plan Community Health and Wellness Goals are to minimize unsafe EMF’s.
the Zero Waste Sonoma purchasing policy calls for purchasing products that minimize environmental impacts, toxins, pollution and hazards to worker and community safety, as well as to purchase durable and long lasting products. (If a smart water meter battery fails, the whole unit has to be replaced.)
Peer reviewed published studies show EMF radiation threatens nature and causes a wide range of health impacts: “Effects include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, increase in harmful free radicals, genetic damages, structural and functional changes of the reproductive system, learning and memory deficits, neurological disorders, and negative impacts on general well-being in humans.” https://www.emfscientist.org/
Adding 3000 smart water meters will increase EMF radiation in Sebastopol and will harm the EMF aware and injured community. They will harm our quality of life, disturb our sense of safety and peace and create a nuisance throughout our city.
Please keep the current water meters, with an OPT-IN to a non-transmitting digital meter for people who want more detailed water usage data.
Thank you,