Ronald M. Powell, Ph.D. to the WSSC Against AMI Smartmeters

 September 3, 2020

To:  Carla A. Reid

General Manager and CEO
Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission
Laurel, Maryland
Email:  carla.reid@wsscwater.com

CC:    Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission Officials

WSSC Corporate Secretary, Sheila Finlayson, Esq.
WSSC Board of Commissioners  (copies sent separately)
WSSC Legal Counsel, Amanda Stakem Conn, Esq.
WSSC Board of Ethics, c/o Latonya Allen, Administrative Assistant to the Board
WSSC Office of the Inspector General, Arthur A. Elkins, Jr., J.D., CFE, CBA

Officials of Maryland counties served by WSSC

Montgomery County Executive, Marc Elrich
Montgomery County Council Members
Prince George's County Executive, Angela D. Alsobrooks
Prince George's County Council Members

From:  Ronald M. Powell, Ph.D.

Retired U.S. Government career scientist
(short biography appended) Subject:  WSSC's wireless smart meters will harm human health and must be stopped.

As a retired U.S. Government scientist, I urge you to stop WSSC from making its biggest mistake ever:  the conversion of its metering system to wireless smart meters.  They will increase the exposure of the public to harmful radiofrequency radiation every day and every night for the indefinite future.

In this era of COVID-19, we do not need another assault on the health of the public, especially in the two counties served by WSSC.  They have the highest cumulative numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths of any counties in Maryland.

My understanding of WSSC's Plan, in Brief

WSSC plans to provide wireless smart meters for all of its customer accounts, which number 475,000 in the two Maryland counties that WSSC serves:  Montgomery County and Prince George's County.  If I understand correctly, each of these smart meters will likely have a peak radiofrequency (RF) power output between 1 and 2 watts.  Thus, altogether, WSSC is planning to add 475,000 to 950,000 watts of peak RF power output capability, distributed throughout the two counties.  And WSSC apparently wants us to believe that this capability will have no adverse health effects on any county residents.

The Health Argument Against Wireless Smart Meters

To be judged "safe", those wireless smart meters must cause NO HARM TO ANYONE, even though these meters will be communicating with WSSC every day and every night, indefinitely.  However, to date, WSSC seems to be showing very limited interest in safety.  In fact, to those of us outside of WSSC, even that limited interest seems to have surfaced only AFTER WSSC Management had already decided to implement wireless smart meters.  That limited interest took the form of a presentation, and a related document, from a consultant hired by WSSC Management to speak to the WSSC Commission at its meeting on February 19, 2020.  That consultant made an earnest effort to make the case for safety, but had insufficient evidence to assure NO HARM TO ANYONE.  That is not surprising because evidence of the harm caused by radiofrequency radiation continues to accumulate and is overwhelming.  To date, thousands of peer-reviewed biomedical research publications have examined and highlighted the many adverse health effects of radiofrequency radiation.
 
For an overview of the harm caused by radiofrequency radiation, including the radiation emitted by wireless smart meters specifically, please see the first attached document, entitled "Wireless smart meters harm human health."  This document was first presented to WSSC Management on January 19, 2020 and has been just been updated.  To date, no response has been received from WSSC.  This document cites many references and is further supported by five additional attached documents.

For a quick look at what is covered in the first attached document, here are several of the section titles:

o  Personal stories of those harmed by radiofrequency radiation from wireless utility meters and other wireless devices continue to accumulate.

o  Three surveys link health problems to exposure from wireless utility meters.
o  Individuals harmed by exposure to radiofrequency radiation tell their stories in videos.

o  Scientific evidence of harm from radiofrequency radiation has been growing for decades and has become overwhelming.

o  The NIH National Toxicology Program finds "clear evidence" that radiofrequency radiation causes cancer.
o  The World Health Organization classifies radiofrequency radiation as a Group 2B human carcinogen.
o  253 of the world's EMF scientists appeal to the UN and the WHO to protect the public from harm from radiofrequency radiation, including the radiation from smart meters.
o  Review papers document the scientific evidence of harm from radiofrequency radiation.
o  Books document the harm from radiofrequency radiation.

o  Public awareness of harm from radiofrequency radiation is growing and is finding expression at local, state, national, and international levels.

o  40,369 Maryland ratepayers have "opted out" of wireless smart meters for electricity.
o  297,823 individuals and organizations have signed the "International Appeal to Stop 5G on Earth and in Space".
o  217,000 individuals have signed up for the "5G Summit".
o  Public Television programs raise public awareness about the risks of exposure to radiofrequency radiation.
o  Video documentaries bring discussions of the risks of radiofrequency radiation to the public.
o  U.S. Supreme Court upholds "Right to Know" ordinance about cellular radiation risk.
o  Children's Advisory Council to the Governor of Maryland recommends phasing Wi-Fi out of Maryland's schools.

Other Concerns that WSSC's Plan Raises

While this message focuses on health concerns, there are other important concerns that are stated below but that are not further elaborated in this message or in the attached documents:

o  Privacy concerns arise from the daily monitoring of customers' behavior through their water consumption (such as when their homes are occupied and when they are not, and when their children arrive home from school).

o  Security concerns arise from the need to keep secure an immense database of largely unnecessary information about WSSC's customers, since no organization, not even the Department of Defense, has succeeded in protecting its data from unwanted intrusion.

o  Economic concerns arise from the immense cost ($100 million, estimated by WSSC) for the conversion to wireless smart meters, at a time of extreme fiscal stringency.  Also of concern is the high uncertainty that these costs can ever be fully recovered without rate increases, as WSSC attempts to maintain technically complex wireless smart meters that will likely have shorter lifetimes than current metering technology.

o  While WSSC's representative claims that no meter readers will be fired when wireless smart meters are implemented, employment concerns still arise because the projected cost recovery motivates such firing, when unemployment is already dramatically high in this era of COVID-19.  And most of these staff do outdoor jobs that are much safer in this era than most indoor jobs.

o  The MANDATED installation of wireless smart meters, as currently contemplated by WSSC, would ignore the rights of property owners to control which equipment is installed on their property, especially in the absence of an unpaid opt-out option.  A paid opt-out option, though better than no option, would smack of extortion ("pay or we will irradiate you, forever").  And neither an unpaid, nor a paid, opt-out option would protect the public from the radiation from their neighbors' wireless smart meters.

Who am I?

I am a retired U.S. Government career scientist (Ph.D., Applied Physics, Harvard University, 1975).  During my Government career, I worked for the Executive Office of the President of the United States, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  For those organizations, respectively, I addressed Federal research and development program evaluation, energy policy research, and measurement development in support of the electronics and electrical-equipment industries and the biomedical research community.  I currently interact with other scientists, with physicians, and with other informed individuals around the world about the impact of electromagnetic fields, including radiofrequency radiation, on human health.

I have been a resident of Montgomery County since 1979.

Thank you for your attention.

Regards,

 
Ronald M. Powell, Ph.D.