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Antenna Approved, Boulder Council Turns to Lack of 5G Strategy

A recently approved 10-year lease for Verizon Wireless antennas in the Colorado city highlighted a lack of understanding and preparation for impending 5G technology among city leaders.

(TNS) — As Boulder City Council members last week considered a 10-year lease for Verizon Wireless antennas to be placed on the South Boulder Recreation Center, their discussion veered toward emerging 5G technology and the city's lack of strategy regarding telecommunications leases.

Accompanied by forceful public comment at last week's city council meeting, in which well more than dozen people outlined what they saw as the health risks of cellphone technology and opposed the lease, some council members called for a study session to examine and understand 5G technology. This was despite assurances from Verizon staff that they have no plans yet to deploy 5G in Boulder.

Council in a 6-2 vote approved the lease — with an amendment that Verizon could not make any changes to the facility, including the installation of 5G equipment, without approval by the city. Councilwomen Lisa Morzel and Cindy Carlisle dissented.

Since 2000, the city has permitted 112 wireless telecommunication facilities in the city. City regulations require larger cell facilities be placed on existing buildings to reduce visual clutter.

As users have moved from voice to data usage, smaller cell facilities have been introduced to fill gaps where service is lacking, and such facilities can eventually be switched to serve 5G. In Boulder, two small cell locations have been approved but not yet built, and another 47 locations are under review, Public Works development review manager Edward Stafford told council.

Federal regulations pre-empt local governments from regulating the placement of facilities on the basis of environmental effects, as long as radio frequency emissions comply with FCC regulations. Colorado regulations further pre-empt city actions, especially as they relate to small cell facilities in city rights-of-way.

Because the South Boulder Recreation Center is a city-owned facility but not a city right-of-way, the city is able to give thumbs up or thumbs down on the lease, and it also is able to charge Verizon for use of the space. The resulting lease will bring in about $30,000 per year for the city, and Verizon representatives said it would address lacking cellphone service.

Verizon engineer Kevin Brown told council some facilities in Boulder are oversaturated, making them almost unusable.

Verizon representatives also assured council the company conducts a pre-study to simulate full capacity of the facilities before installation, and also hires a third-party vendor to test compliance after installation. They also committed to submitting that third-party study to the city once it is complete.

"Whether it's 4G or 5G, it's regulated by the FCC," Verizon counsel Carey Gagnon said. "The FCC has set limits for radio frequency emissions, and what is deemed to be healthy for the public exposure. Whatever technology we're deploying, we are within those guidelines."

Councilwoman Mirabai Nagle described council as between a rock and a hard place — it could either approve the lease and pocket the $30,000 annually, or Verizon could select a nearby right-of-way and install the equipment without the same city oversight, she said.

The majority of council members voted to approve the lease, and also expressed support for a 5G study session at some point in the future.

Councilwoman Cindy Carlisle, who earlier this month called for the matter to be pulled from the consent agenda and instead scheduled for the public hearing last week, in an interview said she is concerned 5G is a marketing tool for large corporations at the expense of public health, and she wouldn't like to see 5G in Boulder. She also advocated for the idea of more local control.

Carlisle said the consent agenda did not offer enough discussion about the matter.

"It's pretty much under the radar, so I asked that it be pulled," she said.

Tuesday, in a public council email, she also asked City Attorney Tom Carr for an update on the status and timeline of the lease.

In an interview, Mayor Suzanne Jones said council will want to examine the issue of telecommunications in conjunction with the city's building out of broadband infrastructure.

"It is incumbent upon us before we invest a lot of public dollars and give up a lot of our public right of way to new technology that we have done due diligence on public health and safety, and convince the public of the research behind that," Jones said. "It's just important for us to pause and educate ourselves and others in the community about the state of the research and health and safety standards, and also the cost effectiveness of various approaches."

Kevin Gifford, scholar-in-residence in the University of Colorado's Technology, Cybersecurity and Policy program, said there is a higher radiation risk from cellphones than the towers.

"This is very low transmit power, and if you're really worried about it, stop using your cellphone," he said. "You are getting much more radiation from holding your cellphone to your ear than from any LTE or 5G tower."

The transmit power for 4G and 5G is very low, he said. Transmit power for 5G will be lower than 4G, though frequency will be higher, he said.

Existing Wi-Fi equipment has a similar transmit power and coverage to that of 5G, he said.

"The concern of potential health effects, I will agree, is not a trite concern or a trivial concern," he said, "but in my opinion they are blowing it out of proportion. They are making a mountain out of a molehill."

Michael Wyde, a toxicologist and project manager for cellphone studies conducted by the National Toxicology Program, said those studies have focused thus far on 2G and 3G technology. Program researchers are in close communication with the FCC to keep an eye on the emergence of 5G, he said, and are planning studies related to 4G.

Researchers found evidence that male rats exposed to high levels of radio frequency radiation like that in 2G and 3G cellphones developed cancerous heart tumors, according to a news release, but Wyde noted they used higher exposures than what humans experience.

"We don't know at this point, for sure, whether humans need to be concerned about (our studies) because these studies were done in laboratory animals," he said. "The next step is trying to determine whether or not these findings are relevant in human beings."

However, he added that the risk from towers is negligible.

"The general public's exposure to radio frequency radiation from towers is negligible," he said.

©2019 the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.). Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.