Federal Judge Refuses to Halt Work on Microwave Tower

A federal judge Wednesday refused to stop government work crews from continuing construction of a microwave tower on top of Sulphur Mountain.

A group calling itself the Environmental Coalition of Ojai filed suit in U. S. District Court in Los Angeles on Friday, asking that workers be prevented from finishing the 98-foot weather station and that more detailed environmental studies be performed.

The landowners are afraid that low-level radiation waves emitted from the tower may cause cancer or other diseases. Not enough research has been conducted to show that the radiation levels are safe, they argued in court papers.

But U. S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter ruled late Wednesday that there was no need for the 10-day restraining order because government plans do not call for the weather-tracking tower to be switched on before Feb. 8.

Instead, he scheduled a Jan. 31 hearing to hear arguments from government attorneys and lawyers representing actor Larry Hagman, landowner David Hedman and other coalition members who filed the lawsuit.

“The plaintiff hasn’t met any of the elements required to get a preliminary injunction or a temporary restraining order,” Assistant U. S. Atty. Donna Everett said. “The agency conducted all of the (environmental) assessments that were required.”

Hatter ordered the U. S. attorney’s office to provide the administrative record of the entire project by Jan. 20. A court official said Hatter would review the voluminous government record before the Jan. 31 hearing.

Fred M. Blum, attorney for the environmental coalition, said Hatter’s denial of the restraining order was not surprising.

“I would admit there’s no emergency,” the San Francisco attorney said. But if the denial “was a foreshadowing of his feelings in the case, he would not have set a quick briefing schedule, which he did do.”

In court papers opposing the restraining order, Everett said the radar system is safe.

“Everything was considered, and the radar is not dangerous,” she said in an interview. “There have been numerous surveys done, and they conclude that there are no harmful effects to the environment or to the people.”

Hagman, whose sprawling hilltop estate lies in the shadow of the tower, took a wait-and-see attitude Wednesday night toward Hatter’s ruling.

“The wheels of justice move exceedingly slow and grind exceedingly fine,” he said from New York. “With them, it’s always three steps forward and two steps back.”

Hedman said that despite the ruling Wednesday, the Environmental Coalition of Ojai will not be deterred.

“It’s not totally unexpected,” he said. “We realize it’s a David and Goliath fight. The big hearing is the 31st, and we’ll put all of our resources into that.”

The radar system, which resembles a black scaffold and sphere, sprang up early last month on property owned by William and Ernestine Kee, after the Kees leased a portion of their ranch to the government.

Within days, many of their neighbors mobilized and vowed to “topple the tower.”

By late December, they had won a temporary restraining order in Ventura County Superior Court that prevented the Kees from allowing the government across the easement they have on the land of neighbor Agnes Baron.

But the U. S. attorney’s office filed condemnation papers against that easement last week, allowing construction of the radar system to proceed.

If the federal court rules Jan. 31 that detailed environmental analyses must be completed before the Sulphur Mountain project goes on line, it could affect other Doppler radar systems being erected across the country.

Blum said he and his clients are optimistic.

“If Judge Hatter rules against us on the 31st, that’s a setback,” Blum said. “This isn’t.”