Ruling Backs Plan to Switch on Radar Tower : Ojai: Federal judge decides adequate studies have been done on the weather system to ensure safety. Appeal is planned.

A federal judge on Friday refused to prevent the government from turning on a microwave radar tower atop Sulphur Mountain next week, ruling that officials had performed adequate studies to ensure residents’ safety.

But opponents of the weather-tracking system, fearful that radiation emissions could cause leukemia or other sicknesses, vowed to file an emergency appeal with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal as soon as Monday.

Actor Larry Hagman, resident David Hedman and a group calling itself the Environmental Coalition of Ojai asked the court to grant a preliminary injunction to prevent the government from switching on the system until more detailed analysis could be done.

But U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. said that no further analysis was needed under federal law.

“I may not agree with (the completed reports’) findings, but there’s nothing I can do about that,” Hatter said.

The 98-foot tower was erected in a neighborhood atop Sulphur Mountain in early December. More than 150 other towers are being constructed across the country as part of a $4.5-billion, decade-long government modernization project.

The Sulphur Mountain system will replace an aging National Weather Service antenna on top of the federal building in West Los Angeles. The new tower also will provide military and Federal Aviation Administration workers with vital weather data, officials said.

Within days of the tower’s appearance near Ojai, residents afraid of the low-level radiation emitted from the system mobilized to remove the radar system.

Friday’s ruling, however, effectively ends the lawsuit unless the appellate court decides to force the government to do a more specific study of the Sulphur Mountain site.

“It’s a setback, but this was only a battle,” said attorney Fred M. Blum, who likened the effect of the radar system on his clients to that of a chicken inside a microwave oven. “It’s who wins ultimately that matters.”

Blum said he most likely would file the appeal on Monday or Tuesday.

Assistant U.S. Atty. Donna J. Everett, pleased but not surprised by Friday’s ruling, said numerous studies have concluded that the Doppler radar system poses no threat to people or wildlife.

“There are absolutely no harmful effects to the people,” Everett said. “This radar operates at 60,000 times less (radiation) than what it would take to have an effect on the environment or human tissue.

“These people are frightened for nothing,” she said. “The threat’s just not there.”

In court Friday morning, Blum told Hatter that the National Weather Service should be required to perform an environmental assessment specifically for the Sulphur Mountain site.

Federal officials prepared a single analysis for the more than 150 towers being erected nationwide, issuing a finding that the radar systems cause no significant impacts and that specific studies were not needed for each site.

Blum also argued that the federal government failed to properly notify area landowners of its intent to locate the system near their neighborhood, and that new information related to the health effects of low-level radiation has been uncovered since the renovation project began.

“They can very easily say there is no significant impact sitting back in their offices in Washington or in the U.S. attorney’s office,” Blum said of the government analysts. “They’re not going to be the chicken in the microwave.”

The Doppler system will be in a test mode for weeks, until local workers can be trained to interpret the new data, said Jerry McDuffie, who runs the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.

“We’re behind on the testing from all the delays we’ve had,” McDuffie said. “Chances are, sometime mid- to late-week we might get to the point where we can turn the transmitter on.”

McDuffie said the tower would not be fully operational before September, at which time the existing system, in west Los Angeles, can be torn down.

“That doesn’t mean we’re not using the data,” he said. “It just means the radar itself is not fully commissioned.”

A small contingent of Ojai residents braved a lengthy and rain-slicked commute to attend the hearing in Los Angeles. Most were encouraged that Hatter seemed to side with them, but felt he was bound by existing law.

“The judge commented from the bench that he doesn’t like what the government’s done,” said Dale Givner, an attorney and a member of the coalition. “It’s just hard to change the law. But that’s why we have the system. They (appellate judges) do have the power to say this project smells.”

NEXT STEP

Attorneys representing the Environmental Coalition of Ojai plan to file an appeal with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeal on Monday or Tuesday. The appellate judges could order the federal government to complete a specific environmental review for the Sulphur Mountain radar tower, which would prevent federal officials from turning on the microwave system next week as planned.