Press conference for the Lake Tahoe federal lawsuit – yet another landmark federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento against the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), Verizon Wireless, the Tahoe Prosperity Center, Inc., and a South Lake Tahoe property owner.

Watch a replay of the press conference below

This suit was brought in November by South Lake Tahoe resident Monica Eisenstecken, and three environmental nonprofit organizations, including Environmental Health Trust. The petitioners seeks to prevent the looming proliferation of 5G-enabled “small cell” antennas and cell towers throughout the Tahoe region until rigorous environmental reviews of the proposed infrastructure have been completed by the TRPA as mandated by its own rules.

The lawsuit also raises the issue of Defendants’ lack of compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Fair Housing Amendments Act (FHAA), both of which require the “reasonable accommodation” of persons with existing physical or medical conditions. A growing number of people suffer from “microwave sickness,” a recognized medical illness exacerbated by radiation emitted from wireless devices. Legal actions under the ADA and FHAA seeking “reasonable accommodation” from wireless towers and infrastructure are not pre-empted by the TCA.

Plaintiff Monica Eisenstecken suffers from certain medical conditions intensified by exposure to wireless radiation. She has also asserted claims under the ADA and FHAA to prevent the installation of a 112-foot-high cell tower just 150 feet from her home which, if constructed, when operational, will render her home uninhabitable to her and her family. While the average cell tower may emit 5kW of power, the antennas on Verizon’s proposed tower adjacent to the Eisenstecken home can emit over 47kW, essentially blanketing the area in electro-magnetic frequency radiation and affecting everyone nearby. The environmental organizations bringing this suit point out that expanding the already existing fiber optic networks in the Lake Tahoe region would provide a cheaper, faster, more secure, and environmentally-sound alternative to the build-out of wireless technology infrastructure.

As covered in AP news “the lawsuit alleges Verizon and its local agent, Sacramento-Valley Limited Partnership, laid the groundwork for the most recently proposed 112-foot (34-meter) tower in South Lake Tahoe, California with false promises to bring a high-speed broadband network to everyone at the lake.

“In what appears to be a classic `bait and switch’ scheme, the telecoms had promised fiber-optic infrastructure at Tahoe in exchange for massive subsidies but now push their wireless agenda for greater profits,” the suit says.

“The telecoms routinely claim that further facilities are justified to meet a ‘coverage gap’ and provide for additional capacity, but they have actually created that `gap’ and lack of capacity themselves by failing to provide the promised fiber network,” it said.

Read the full AP news story here https://apnews.com/article/public-health-mark-twain-health-sacramento-lawsuits-6069c0d4514816e7bcc72feefbad33f8

LEGAL DOCUMENTS

Amended Complaint

Please register on Tuesday Feb. 16, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. EST (5:00 p.m. PST)  at this link.