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Residents urge moratorium on new cell towers, cite health and property concerns
Summary
Several members of the public urged Trinity County to impose a moratorium on new cell-tower permits, citing alleged health risks, property damage and lack of adequate public notice; no board action was taken during the meeting.
Multiple members of the public used the meeting's public comment period to press the Board of Supervisors to halt or review new cell-tower permits and to seek remedies for property damage they attributed to recent installations.
A local speaker who identified herself for the record as Vedette Vanderwey (also using the names Lewis Sim in the record) told the board that expansion of cell towers is under way and said her parents were not notified prior to a tower installation near their farm. She asked the county to consider a countywide moratorium on new tower permits until alleged process failures and erosion damage to private property are addressed. "Once these corporations infiltrate our land, they take what they want with no accountability," the speaker said, and added she would assemble educators to present peer-reviewed evidence on health impacts if the county did not act.
On Zoom, Tiffany Thurman also raised health concerns and referenced historical U.S. defense and research documents she said link radio-frequency exposures to a range of illnesses. She asserted that some insurers decline to underwrite long-term health damage claims tied to transmitter radiation and urged the county to act to protect residents.
Board members did not take immediate action at the meeting. Supervisors later noted cell towers had been a frequent topic of constituent concern at recent town-hall meetings and said they would need more information to act; one supervisor said she had been "woefully undereducated" on the issue.
Context: Speakers requested a moratorium pending an investigation of notice and environmental/process impacts. The county did not adopt new regulations or a moratorium at the meeting; the matter was raised for the board's future consideration and for staff follow-up.
Ending: Commenters said they would continue to raise the matter and bring evidence to the county; supervisors said they would review the issue and seek additional information before proposing regulatory change.
