Environmental Groups
Call on Cell Phone Companies
To Stop Putting Profits Ahead of Public Safety on Northway
New Tall-Towers Proposal
Better for Companies, Not Park or Motorists
Click to read letter from groups to cell phone
companies
Released, Wednesday, March 7,
2007
ALBANY, N.Y. - Five environmental
organizations today called on the state's major cell phone companies
to stop putting profits ahead of public safety when it comes
to coverage of the Adirondack Northway, and to respect the environmental
standards that protect the Park's scenery and economic viability.
The groups called on the cell phone companies to stop pretending
they have a detailed alternative for cell service on the Northway
and work out a responsible plan with Governor Eliot Spitzer.
"Nothing has been submitted by the cell phone companies
for state review since 2002. The sketchy alternatives proposed
so far seem to involve building nine very tall towers, with some
on public lands," said Brian L. Houseal, Executive Director
of the Adirondack Council. "Very tall towers would harm
the Park's scenic beauty, upon which its economy depends. Any
attempt to grab public lands for private, corporate use would
doom the project to a storm of lawsuits, delays and failure."
"The state's own consultants said it would take 16 very
tall towers, each the height of a 15- to 18-story building, to
equal the coverage of the 33-pole plan approved by the Adirondack
Park Agency in 2002," said William C. Cooke, Director of
Government Relations for the Citizens Campaign for the Environment.
"Nine towers won't do it, over 60 miles of highway, regardless
of where they are sited. This section of road runs between four
mountainous Wilderness Areas. It's time for the cell companies
to stop maneuvering for a better business opportunity and start
working with the Governor for a real solution."
The environmental organizations agreed with local residents that
cell phone coverage on the Northway's least populous stretch
(Exits 26 to 35) would aid public safety. That's why they helped
the State Police gain quick approval from the Adirondack Park
Agency and federal highway officials for the 33-pole network
in 2002. Cell companies were at first partners with the state
in seeking approval for the 33-pole plan. After it was approved,
however, the cell phone companies said the cost was too high
and walked away.
"Verizon says they're working on providing coverage, but
it's years away. It took over a year to put a new installation
in downtown Elizabethtown. Verizon and any other company with
good ideas on how to 'wire' the Northway should bring its ideas
forward and work with Governor Spitzer, Homeland Security Department,
and the Statewide Wireless Network. It seems that the Northway
will only get cell coverage if there is a new partnership between
various cell phone companies and the state," said Peter
Bauer, Executive Director of the Residents' Committee to Protect
the Adirondacks.
"The politicized, often hyperbolic effort to cast the conservation
community as the villain in this debate has been unfounded from
the start," said David H. Gibson, Executive Director of
the Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks. "The
People of New York State have directed by numerous laws and the
State Constitution to preserve the wild, scenic beauty and character
of the Adirondack Park for well over a century. The Northway
itself falls under important laws and restrictions, including
scenic easements decades old and a matter of law. More important,
the conservation community and the Adirondack Park Agency supported
viable action in 2002 to directly address the public safety issue
on the Northway. We wish to promote a new public-private partnership
that works for the safety of Northway drivers, cell phone providers
and the State's long held interest in the wild and scenic integrity
of the Adirondack Park."
A Verizon spokesman was quoted by the Plattsburgh Press-Republican
on March 1, stating that Verizon alone spends $1 billion every
90 days to improve its network. However, Verizon has developed
fewer than 10 permanent new cell sites in the nearly 10,000-square-mile
Adirondack Park since 2000, according to Adirondack Park Agency
records. The Park's year-round population of 130,000 people
equates to an average of about 14 people per square mile.
"In reality, neither Verizon nor Nextel, nor any other company,
has presented anything more than conceptual counter-plan so far,
with no maps and no engineering report to back it up," said
John Stouffer, Legislative Director for the Sierra Club - Atlantic
Chapter. "Even worse, the Verizon plan would require permanent
construction on publicly owned lands inside the Adirondack Park.
If they are talking about the Forest Preserve, and it appears
that they are, such a plan would be illegal without the consent
of two separately elected Legislatures and the state's voters.
It would take until 2009 or later for such an approval to be
granted. I suspect the public would turn it down anyway. So
how does that help?"
"If they were to ignore the Constitution, and go ahead with
a project on Forest Preserve, any one of the state's 19 million
residents could sue and force their removal by the courts,"
said Houseal of the Adirondack Council. "Then we would
be right back where we started."
The groups offered advice to Verizon and the other cell phone
companies operating in New York on how to get a working system
in place before next winter:
- Design a system to provide wireless
communications for motorists traveling the Northway with public
safety and emergency use as the primary goal;
- No construction of communications
towers, maintenance roads or electrical power lines on Forest
Preserve land;
- Adhere to the Adirondack Park
Agency's "towers policy" to ensure that towers are
substantially invisible and appropriately sited and compliance
with all applicable provisions of the Adirondack Park Agency
Act, and the State Environmental Quality Review Act;
- Honor the scenic easements that
the State has acquired along the Northway corridor;
- Consider how a potential partnership
with the State's Statewide Wireless Network (SWN) may allow for
additional collocation;
- Keep in mind the unique situation
along the Northway, a designated scenic federal highway, is different
than the rest of the Adirondack Park; and
- Bandwidths and associated infrastructure
should be minimized for the purpose of emergency communications
only.
For more information:
John F. Sheehan, Adirondack Council, 518-432-1770 (w); 441-1340
(c); 456-4512 (h)
Peter Bauer, Residents' Committee to Protect the Adirondacks,
518-251-4257 x13.
David Gibson, Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks,
518-377-1452
John Stouffer, Sierra Club, 518-426-9144
William Cooke, Citizens Campaign for the Environment, 518-434-8171
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