Date: Sun, 28 Jan 2001 19:28:02 -0600
From: Darlene Raunio <darvr@newnorth.net>
Subject: Sen. Feingold Jumps Into Stray Voltage Issue
La Crosse Tribune
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/news/1voltage1.php3
Feingold jumps into stray voltage issue
By CHRIS HARDIE/Local news editor
U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold said he is investigating constituents' concerns
that stray voltage and electrical power quality problems affect human health.
In a speech last week on the Senate floor, the Wisconsin Democrat also
mentioned stray voltage and health concerns as reasons to support his proposal
to shut down a Navy communications system in Wisconsin.
Feingold met with a group of people Wednesday, including Blair electrical
consultant Dave Stetzer and his partner Martin Graham, a retired Berkeley,
Calif., electrical engineer, who discussed their research and findings
connecting power quality and human health.
In a statement for the La Crosse Tribune, Feingold said he intends to
look closely at the concerns.
"I met today (Jan. 24) in Washington, D.C. with constituents who are
concerned about power quality issues and the effect of electrical and magnetic
fields on human health, particularly for those who may be sensitive to
such fields. It was my first in-depth meeting on these issues, and I will
review the matter to determine what role the federal government can play
in assisting constituents who would like federal resources to be added
to ongoing state, local and citizen efforts."
Feingold said the state has most of the regulatory authority to address
power quality problems. "But the federal government may have a supportive
role to play, and I will look at these issues closely."
Graham, who calls ground currents electrical pollution, called the meeting
with Feingold and his staff people encouraging.
"We felt something was accomplished and worth the trip," Graham said.
"We did make the point as best we could with Feingold and his staff."
Graham and Stetzer say they have linked power quality and stray voltage
problems with human health. State health officials have said there is not
enough research into the continuous exposure of low levels of electrical
current to make the connection.
On Monday, Feingold mentioned human and environmental health concerns
when he began his annual attempt to shut down the Navy's Extremely Low
Frequency (Project ELF) submarine communications system located near Clam
Lake, Wis.
"Numerous medical studies point to a possible link between exposure
to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields and a variety of human
health effects and abnormalities in both animal and plant species," Feingold
said.
"In 1999, after six years of research, the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences released a report that did not prove conclusively a link
between electromagnetic fields and cancer, but the report did not disprove
it, either. Serious questions remain ... and many of my constituents are
rightly concerned about this issue."
Along with environmental concerns, Feingold said the system is ineffective
and unnecessary in the post-Cold War era and its shutdown could save taxpayers
$14 million a year.
ELF, which started in the 1970s and became fully operational in 1989
after three decades of planning, uses two transmitting antennas, one in
Wisconsin and one in Michigan, which operate simultaneously. The antennas
send signals through the earth to deep-sea submarines all over the globe.
The site in Wisconsin consists of two 14-mile antennas using two lines
mounted on wooden poles similar to a power line. It is located near Clam
Lake in the Chequamegon National Forest. The second is near Republic, Mich.
Feingold, who has been unsuccessful in previous attempts to end the
system, told the Senate that ELF is an expensive beeper system that can
only tell submarines to come to the surface to receive messages from other
sources. Those other sources have improved with technology, making ELF
unnecessary, Feingold said.
"There also continue to be a number of public health and environmental
concerns associated with Project ELF," Feingold told the Senate. "For almost
two decades, we have received inconclusive data on this project's effects
on Wisconsin and Michigan residents. In 1984, a U.S. District Court ordered
that ELF be shut down because the Navy paid inadequate attention to the
system's possible health effects and violated the National Environmental
Policy Act. Interestingly, that decision was overturned because U.S. national
security, at the time, prevailed over public health and environmental concerns."
"In addition, I have heard from a number of dairy farmers who are convinced
that the stray voltage associated with ELF transmitters has demonstrably
reduced milk production."
One of those dairy farmers is Jean Harder, who operates a fourth-generation
dairy farm near Chilton with her husband Paul and his two brothers. After
the Harders met with Feingold twice to discuss their concerns, Jean wrote
Feingold a letter in May 2000, raising the possibility that ELF is responsible
for some of the stray voltage problems on their farm.
The Harders say those problems have been going on for years, but have
not been solved despite working with electricians, their utility and state
officials.
"About the only time we didn't have problems was when ELF was shut down,"
Harder said.
Although their farm is several hundred miles from the ELF antenna,
Harder believes the radio frequency emissions from ELF travel along natural
earth paths, one of which leads through their farm, she said. That frequency
could combine with excess voltage in the earth and cause stray voltage
problems, Harder said.
Navy spokeswoman Lt. Jane Alexander said ELF has been shown to not be
hazardous.
"Our only comment is that the National Research Council did a study
in 1997 and cited there were no harmful effects of ELF in the area," Alexander
said.
She also defended the strategic need for ELF, saying it is the Navy's
only means of communications with submarines that are submerged. "If we
didn't have ELF, they would have to come up and as soon as they surfaced
they would give away their location. That would be a danger to the sailors
on subs."
Feingold said the need for stealth subs has diminished with the end
of the Cold War, but he would keep the ELF system preserved in case it
would be needed in the future.
The transmitter site in Clam Lake has been the site of numerous environmental
protests. Some protesters have cut down some of the 40-foot poles and have
been convicted of criminal damage to property.
Chris can be reached at chardie@@lacrossetribune.com or 791-8218.
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DIRTY POWER
The Electric Power Research Institute - a utility industry research
organization - says an increasing use of high-efficiency electronic equipment
such as computers and other electronics creates distorted electrical waves,
which are then carried through the electrical distribution system. EPRI
estimates as much as 70 percent of all electricity used by 2002 will pass
through electronic equipment that can cause harmonic distortion.
EPRI also says power quality and reliability are threatened by power
lines not designed for today's equipment needs. Former Energy Secretary
Bill Richardson compared the nation's aging electrical grid to that of
a Third World system.