Here’s an update to a story we noted last summer, as passed along by a reader to the CGC Newsletter.
According to the Public Opinion newspaper in Chambersburg, Pa., the local borough council is using eminent domain to acquire private land housing AM radio towers that have hindered construction of a nearby 2-million-gallon water storage tank for 17 months.
“Work on the project, aimed at improving water pressure in the south end of Chambersburg, stalled in October 2002 when workers received burns from radiofrequency (RF) waves from the transmission towers,” the newspaper reported last week.
“Borough Council members agreed to ask the Chambersburg Municipal Authority, which operates the water system, to move ahead with condemnation proceedings against WCBG(AM) owner M. Belmont Verstandig Inc. after negotiations with company president John Verstandig stalled.”
The newspaper went on to state that Verstandig could not be reached for comment, but that in the past, he has said the problem with RF was caused by the borough and he shouldn’t have to bear the cost of resolving the situation.
The government may offer the owner the chance to relocate his radio towers on a tract owned by the borough, previously rejected by Verstandig.
The water tank is part of Chambersburg’s water system overhaul, the newspaper reported. WCBG has four towers on Tower Road, one less than 200 feet from the tank site.
“Shortly after construction of the 153-foot-tall tank began, workers from CB&I Contractors of Pittsburgh began suffering from shocks and RF burns when the metal water tank essentially began acting as a fifth radio tower. Work on the tank, halted in October 2002, is about 15% complete. Borough officials have admitted that someone should have recognized before construction that problems might be created by building the water tank close to the radio towers.”
Water Tank May Win Out Over AM Towers
Water Tank May Win Out Over AM Towers