Tower Upgrades Are Premature

It’s been a lousy month for federal arrogance, starting with FBI revelations about the Waco, Texas, disaster and continuing with an appearance by National Weather Service officials at a public forum in Ojai about the controversial Sulphur Mountain weather radar tower.

After quietly sticking the ugly and, for all anyone knows, dangerous contraption into this rural neighborhood six years ago, the agency now intends to solidify its presence with an upgraded power supply and a permanent building to house the equipment. To neighbors’ unabated concerns about the tower, the agency made just one gesture of conciliation: It sent a letter to some of the Sulphur Mountain residents warning them that the upgrade work could create one day of traffic tie-ups.

Not at all what the neighbors wanted to hear.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who has introduced federal legislation that would require the weather service to move the tower, chaired last week’s forum.

“We want to eliminate a repeat of what happened six years ago, when the federal government came under the cover of darkness and put up that radar system,” he told the audience of about 100. “Before anything else takes place on Sulphur Mountain we want to have a clear understanding that no upgrade will have any bearing on what happens to the tower in six months or whenever.”

Since the 98-foot-tall tower was installed over the Thanksgiving weekend in 1993, a vocal group of residents has pushed to have it relocated. Concerns include the tower’s impact on property values and possible long-term health hazards. The effect of its pulsing Doppler radar on humans apparently has never been tested.

Weather Service officials told the crowd that data from the tower have helped it predict storms and offer more timely flood warnings, and that the electromagnetic energy it emits is far below the level that might cause harm.

Gallegly noted that there are other, more remote, sites from which the data could be collected and vowed to keep pushing to have the tower moved.

On Tuesday, weather service officials plan to present their plans to the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, which has already passed two resolutions opposing the tower and questioning its effectiveness. Although it lacks authority over the federal agency, the board should strongly encourage it not to spend another dime on the site--let alone the proposed $190,000--until the issue of moving the tower to a less populated location is resolved.