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Anyone who watched a press conference held by Gov. Dannel Malloy with Connecticut Light & Power President and CEO Jeffrey Butler Tuesday evening saw an embarrassing display‚ not by Malloy and Butler‚ but by members of the media, whose argumentative questions might lead you to believe it was the governor and CL&P who conspired to dump snow across the state last weekend.A gaggle of squawking muckrakers reserved their fiercest attacks for Butler at the press conference Tuesday, apparently for not having enough line crews in Connecticut from other states. Companies from states outside of Connecticut have promised to send workers to help clean up a clearly gargantuan mess created by Winter Storm Alfred, but they have been slower than expected in arriving. A problem with not getting paid for previous work seemed to be a significant issue for the out-of-state workers, but it is also clear that the size and extent of last weekend’s storm came a surprise to just about everyone.Self-righteous reporters took the opportunity to assail Butler for not having enough out-of-state crews, as if he has any power (excuse the pun) to control them.Malloy did say Tuesday that he was disappointed with the response from other states, but what can we really expect? As of Tuesday night, Butler said there were nearly 500 crews working in Connecticut, including CL&P’s total workforce of 172 crews, and that he expected more than 1,000 crews to be operating by the end of the week. That’s fairly impressive. In the Winsted area, many of the trucks working along the roadsides have been from North Carolina-based Pike Electric.Anyone who has driven even a few miles in Litchfield County can see dozens of instances of downed trees, limbs hanging on power lines and downed wires. Multiply that by the millions of miles of roads in this state and it becomes obvious that the task of getting everyone’s coffee makers working again isn’t going to happen overnight, no matter how many crews are here. The pathetic whining by members of the media, in a seeming attempt to stir more public anger than is necessary, is irresponsible and clearly not even the real story that is happening in Connecticut.What is the real story? Well, first of all, people are overwhelmingly surviving and taking this storm in stride, as they tend to do in a state that has such commonly unpredictable weather. Friends and family members are staying at homes where they know power has been restored, or where generators are running. Major and secondary roads have been cleared remarkably quickly by town and state crews to make room for work on power lines, and we are all doing the best we can to deal with the aftermath of a freak October snowstorm.And finally, just for contrast, if there is anyone who truly deserves to be angry in Connecticut, it is any passenger who was on that stranded JetBlue flight that was diverted to Bradley International Airport Saturday night and ended up spending seven hours on the snowy runway. The people responsible for that idiotic decision deserve the kind of scrutiny and tough questioning from Connecticut’s TV news reporters, who are aiming at easier targets.
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Telecom Reg’s Best Kept On the Books
When Connecticut land-use commissions update their regulations, it seems like a no-brainer to jettison old telecommunications regulations adopted decades ago during a short-lived period when municipalities had authority to regulate second generation (2G) transmissions prior to the Connecticut Siting Council (CSC) being ordered by a state court in 2000 to regulate all cell tower infrastructure as “functionally equivalent” services.
It is far better to update those regs instead, especially for macro-towers given new technologies like small cells. Even though only ‘advisory’ to the CSC, the preferences of towns by law must be taken into consideration in CSC decision making. Detailed telecom regs – not just a general wish list -- are evidence that a town has put considerable thought into where they prefer such infrastructure be sited without prohibiting service that many – though not all – citizens want and that first responders rely on for public safety.
Such regs come in handy when egregious tower sites are proposed in sensitive areas, typically on private land. The regs are a town’s first line of defense, especially when cross referenced to plans of conservation and development, P&Z regulations, and wetlands setbacks. They identify how/where the town plans to intersect with the CSC process. They are also a roadmap for service providers regarding preferred sites and sometimes less neighborhood contention. In fact, to have no telecom regs can weaken a town’s rights to protect environmental, scenic, and historic assets, and serve up whole neighborhoods to unnecessary overlapping coverage and corporate overreach. Such regs are unique to every town and should not follow anyone else’s boiler plate, especially industry’s.
Connecticut is the only state that has a centralized siting entity for cell towers. The good news is that applicants must prove need for new tower sites in an evidentiary proceeding and any decisions have the weight of the state behind them. The bad news is that the CSC used to be far less industry-friendly and rote in their reviews, which now resemble a check list. There is an operative assumption at CSC that if an applicant wants a tower, they must need it, otherwise why spend significant money to run the approval gauntlet? This reflects a subtle shift over the years at CSC from sincere willingness to protect the environment toward minimal tweaking of bad applications with minor changes. The bottom line is that towns really cannot rely on the CSC to do all the work for them.
What CSC issues telecom providers is a “certificate of environmental compatibility” after an evidentiary proceeding (not unlike a court case) with intervenors, parties, expert witnesses, and the service provider’s technical pro’s sworn in and subject to cross examination. Service providers get to do the same with any opposition from intervenor/party participants – like towns and citizens -- and their experts. It’s an impressive process whose ultimate goal is the fine balancing between allowing adequate/reliable public services and protecting state ecology with minimal damage to scenic, historic, and recreational values. They unfortunately often fall short of their mandate – like approving cell towers with diesel generators over town aquifers -- evidenced by CSC only rejecting about five cell towers in the past 15-20 years.
The CSC was founded in 1972 and clarified its mission in the 1980’s to prevent the state from being carved up willy-nilly by gas pipelines, high tension corridors, and broadcast towers. With the sudden proliferation of cell towers beginning in late 1990’s, it became the most sued agency in Connecticut by both an arrogant upstart industry if applications were denied and by towns/citizens when bad sites were forced on them. CSC gradually formed a defensive posture that drives their decisions toward industry with deeper pockets and attorneys on retainer.
For citizens, nothing can wreck one’s day like the CSC. It behooves towns to protect what little toolkit they have, and understand the legal parameters of the CSC’s playing field. The CSC is not a “normal” government agency where municipal/citizen redress is based on logic and local support. Their process is largely immune to everything but specific kinds of evidence – like town regs with setbacks/fall zones, radio frequency transmission signal strengths, sensitive areas identified, and detailed wildlife inventory, among others.
There is a current cell tower fight involving two intervening towns -- Washington and Warren; both with good cell tower regs – over a tower site within 1200’ of a Montessori School, near Steep Rock’s nature preserves with comprehensive geology/wildlife databases that include endangered, threatened and special concern flora and fauna, on established federal/state migratory bird flyways, within throwing distance to a historic site capable of being listed on the Underground Railroad, and with an access road on a blind curve entering a state highway that will permanently damage wetlands, vernal pools, and core forests. There are well credentialed environmental experts, including Dr. Michael Klemens, former chair of Salisbury’s P&Z, as well as the former director of migratory bird management at the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and an RF engineer testifying to alternative approaches, plus three attorneys representing intervenors. It is the most professional challenge I have seen at CSC since Falls Village successfully mounted one that protected Robbins Swamps several years ago.
The hearing is ongoing, with uncertain results. To see what it takes today to stop an inappropriate tower siting, see Docket #543 under “Pending Matters” at https://portal.ct.gov/csc before removing local cell tower regs – the lowest hanging fruit that any town can possess in case it’s needed.
B, Blake Levitt is the Communications Director at The Berkshire-Litchfield Environmental Council. She writes about how technology affects biology.