The truth regarding smart water meter misinformation

Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) is currently installing smart water meters throughout its district, starting with San Diego Country Estates. RMWD has graciously agreed to provide free opt-outs for those customers who don't want a smart meter, according to its metering supervisor. Upon visiting RMWD's website (www.rmwd.org), a new article appears, entitled "Smart Meter Infrastructure." It alleges that the community is being misinformed about the new smart water meters, without naming sources.

Smart water meter misinformation is alive and well. Unfortunately, the misinformation appears to be emanating from within, using industry-generated assertions designed to promote smart meters and calm the public down about smart meter realities many scientists and experts warn about. Literally, hundreds of thousands of utility - including water - customers have experienced unpleasant results from smart meter implementation, nationwide, in the past decade that they've been used in North America. These well-documented concerns, described at more length in the Patch article, Ramona's new smart water meters not a smart choice , involve:

1. higher bills without rate increases
2. exposure to what hundreds of independent scientists, physicians, and experts describe as harmful rf radiation in the microwave range, with some illnesses attributed to these exposures
3. potential interference with other wireless devices using the same frequencies

RMWD asserts that "there is no evidence that Smart Meters cause customer water bills to increase." The water district states:

1. Its smart water meters work no differently than analog meters, even though they are wireless and read from a truck, with many named differences within the article.
2. Customers have requested the features smart meters will provide. Have they? How many? Where is this documented?
3. Its smart meters will provide many benefits (Note: that essentially save RMWD money or provide it with data, with no mention of returning this savings to the customers.)
4. "There is no evidence that Smart Meters cause customer water bills to increase". However, RMWD reports its smart meters will provide improved measurement of water usage, ie. "Reduce unbilled usage due to aged meters" (but does not inform customers that this can ultimately result in higher billing without rate increases.) Neither does it mention what the manufacturer, Master Meter, had posted on its website in November 2017, but which no longer is found at that URL - that the new wireless smart water meters will "create more revenue at every metered point" (see above screen shot) for water companies by allowing them to charge customers for previously "unaccounted for" water usage, "maximizing return on investment" with "an immediate positive impact to the bottom line" (from http://www.mastermeter.com/en/3G-Mobile-AMR-Drive-By.html). Translation: your bills ARE likely to be higher with a smart water meter. A simple Google Search on "smart water meters and higher bills" will generate a great deal of media coverage concerning the higher water bills experienced by many communities in North America. Some communities have resorted to law suits to force utilities to admit smart water meters were overcharging - in some cases due to defects.
5. RMWD has been mandated by the state of California to replace old meters. This could be done using new non-wireless analog meters or wake-up style radio-read water meters (sometimes called "ERT meters") which don't emit pulsed rf radiation continuously (1).
6. RMWD attempts to reassure the public that smart meters emit a harmless amount of radiation, compared to other wireless devices. To accomplish this, RMWD provides a link to Health Impacts of Radio Frequency From Smart Meters, a widely debunked, inaccurate, obsolete report by the California Council on Science and Technology (CCST). This report is known to have been hastily written and published in Jan. 2011, and presented to the CA State Legislature in defense of smart meters, then being forced on an unhappy general public by the CPUC (which later ordered an opt-out be available for those who don't want smart utility meters for gas and electric companies.) Criticized by hundreds of independent scientists, physicians, and experts, the CCST report cited by RMWD to allege the rf radiation exposure from smart meters is harmless, is full of industry-generated propaganda copied and pasted from industry-funded reports related to (electric) smart meters such as are now used by SDG&E. For instance, the widely disliked Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), notorious for being the utility alleged to have poisoned the town of Hinkley, CA, memorialized in the movie "Erin Brokovich", and to have caused part of San Bruno to blow up in 2010, killing 8 people due to not maintaining their gas pipelines, was proven to have paid for some of the earlier material quoted in the CCST's report, akin to that generated by "tobacco-scientists" promoting smoking as harmless in prior decades. More found in the flawed report, includes a very misleading diagram comparing smart meters to other wireless devices, was published two weeks earlier in a brochure promoting smart meters by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), "an advocacy group for the electric power industry" (Hirsch, 2011).

Daniel Hirsch, CA radiation expert and UCSC instructor, just one of the many esteemed critics of the CCST report, countered with a critique and his own chart (see above) showing the actual continuous full body exposure from smart meters, compared to other commonly used wireless devices, stating that the EPRI diagram used by CCST was misleading - not comparing apples to oranges.

Another critic of the CCST report found on the RMWD website was Dr. Karl Moret, MD, with a BS in Electrical Engineering, a Master of Engineering degree in Biomedical Engineering, and a four year post-doctoral fellowship in physiology. Dr. Moret had an interest for years in the health effects of electro-magnetic fields and energy medicine, lecturing on these topics widely.

Dr. Moret's concerns about the CCST report included the following, and he called for a halt to smart meter installations as a result:

1. "The minimization of the problem of non-thermal microwave radiation;
2. The minimization of the need for lower exposure standards;
3. The increase in radiation levels at potential local hotspots through reflection;
4. The lack of information about the impact of pulsed radiation from Smart Meters;
5. The lack of information on the health impacts of night-time radiation from Smart Meters;
6. The lack of modeling or actual measurements of the contribution from Smart Meters to the existing background microwave radiation;
7. The lack of health and environmental consideration by the CPUC when the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) was approved." (http://sagereports.com/smart-meter-rf/?p=368)

Earlier this month, the state of California's Dept of Public Health and a Kaiser Permanente wireless researcher warned about serious health impacts from the type of radiation emitted by smart meters and other wireless devices, even at low levels. These groundbreaking announcements are described in my recent article: State of CA and Kaiser warn about rf radiation.

RMWD does not address the potential for conflict with other wireless devices using the same frequencies, such as garage door openers and baby monitors, described in Ramona's new smart water meters not a smart choice.

In conclusion, I agree that smart water meter information can be misleading. But it is the promotional materials generated by a profit-making industry that is the source. I encourage Ramona Municipal Water District customers to strongly consider opting out of smart water meters and keeping an analog meter, by calling (and writing to document the request) the water district. As the nonprofit director of Center for Electrosmog Prevention closely involved in successfully obtaining a reduced cost gas and electric smart meter opt-out for customers of PG&E, Southern CA Edison, Southern CA Gas, and SDG&E (2011-2014), and who successfully prevailed upon Helix Water District, a utility providing water to 200,000 customers in East County, to drop their smart water meter program (2011), and now, working with RMWD to provide a free opt-out and to reconsider their smart water meter plans, I tell you that we can all make a difference. "It takes a village", as they say ...

A head's up - one Ramona resident who requested a smart water meter opt-out and was told he'd get it, got a call recently about RMWD shutting off the water to install the new smart meter. He intercepted the installation in time. So if you've opted out, confirm this in writing (send a confirming letter, or email) and be aware of smart meters that may be installed despite this. Check your calls and meters!

I appreciate the water RMWD has brought to such a wide area with a long history of water needs, as well as its expanded responsibilities for vital fire and emergency services. I suggest that the infrastructure and water services become more affordable - not less affordable - and truly safe for the community, and with a willing and informed spirit. I applaud RMWD for offering the free opt-out. That is a great beginning.

Susan Brinchman, Director, Center for Electrosmog Prevention

www.electrosmogprevention.org

Ramona, CA

(1) Measured radiation levels from wireless smart meters of different models and technologies

Additional articles about smart meters:

Smart meters overcharge - CPUC emails reveal coverup

Ramona's new smart water meters not a smart choice

State of CA and Kaiser warn about rf radiation

High Electric Bill? Here is a possible solution!

FAQ: Billing Issues | Stop Smart Meters!

Foes fight the tide of 'smart' water meters - USA TODAY

DeKalb halts installation of so-called “smart” water meters