Ojai Residents Warn Others About Radar Towers : Health: They start a national letter campaign after failing to get the weather-tracking system moved.

Ojai residents have launched a letter-writing campaign to warn communities across the country of health risks they believe are associated with the National Weather Service’s radar towers.

The residents have been unsuccessful in persuading the federal government to move a weather-tracking system on Sulphur Mountain to a less-populated area, and are now trying to rally support outside their town.

“Everybody’s working on getting the tower down, but specific people have volunteered to contact people in other communities,” said Ojai resident Virginia Loy, who is leading the letter-writing effort.

In February, a federal judge ruled that the weather service had performed adequate studies to ensure the tower’s safety, but residents believe the radar emits hazardous levels of radiation that could cause cancer or leukemia.

After U. S. Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr. refused to halt operation of the tower, saying further analysis was unnecessary, Ojai residents started a grass-roots campaign aimed at garnering support for their cause.

Their latest effort is notifying residents in cities where radar systems are to be constructed in the next year. Members of the “warning committee” plan to send letters and a 32-page report they have written about the Sulphur Mountain tower to public officials and newspapers in those areas, Loy said.

The federal government plans to install 165 new weather tracking systems by the end of 1995, said Jim Campbell, deputy director of the weather service’s western region.

About 70 radar towers have already been constructed nationwide, six of those in the western United States, including the Sulphur Mountain system.

“There’s one going on-line almost every week,” said Lori Arguelles, a spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “We’re roughly halfway there.”

Ojai residents have already contacted individuals in the San Diego and Monterey areas, which are slated for tower installation in the next year.

Arguelles said her office is not concerned by the letter-writing effort.

“Certainly it is every American citizen’s right to contact other citizens,” she said. “I think we have the facts on our side and they will speak for themselves.”

In addition to sending letters to other communities, Ojai residents are continuing to seek support for their cause in Washington.

More than 600 letters to politicians were generated at a town meeting Thursday night at the Chaparral Auditorium, Loy said.

About 200 people crammed into the tiny building to hear public officials, doctors, lawyers and Upper Ojai residents discuss how to force the weather service to relocate the Sulphur Mountain tower.

“It is morally wrong, it is legally wrong and it is scientifically wrong, and we are going to put a stop to it,” Ojai resident Richard Loy said.

“The people of Ojai have changed things and they’re going to do it again,” Loy said. “We’re going to win this battle because each and every one of you is going to write letters.”

Ventura County Supervisors Maggie Kildee and Susan Lacey spoke at the meeting, urging residents to write letters to their elected public officials.

“I wish I came to you to say there is an easy solution, but you and I both know that’s not the way it’s going to work,” Kildee said. “I don’t believe it’s going to be won in a legal battle. I believe it’s going to be won in a political battle. . . . God knows, you in this community have the power to do that.”