IL State Bill HB.5818 to Give Local Governments a Say in Densified 4G/5G Wireless Grid

Adapted from an article by KIMBERLY FORNEK, Aug 13, 2020 | Original Chicago Tribune article here.

Illinois State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi Press Conference on
New Densified 4G/5G Legislation

Illinois State Rep. Rep. Deanne Mazzochi:
“I take the health and well-being of our residents very seriously. I take the values of our properties and our homes very seriously — and our residents must have a say in what is actually happening in their neighborhoods.”

State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi talks about legislation she has proposed to give local governments control of the installation of Densified 4G/5G wireless equipment in their towns. With her are Western Springs Village President Alice Gallagher (left), Clarendon Hills Village President Len Austin (center) and Hinsdale Village Trustee Luke Stifflear. (Matthew Serafin)

State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi has proposed legislation that would protect residents from a proliferation of Densified 4G/5G equipment and require reliable information about the effects of the new wireless frequencies and modulation that is being proposed for Illinois residential neighborhoods. Is this Densified 4G/5G Grid near homes necessary or even worth it?

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Lowell McAdam, CEO of Verizon in May, 2018:

"When [Verizon] went out in these 11 [5G test] markets, we tested for well over a year, so we could see every part of foliage and every storm that went through. We have now busted the myth that [5G frequencies] have to be line-of-sight — they do not. We busted the myth that foliage will shut [5G] down . . . that does not happen. And the 200 feet from a home? We are now designing the network for over 2,000 feet from transmitter to receiver, which has a huge impact on our capital need going forward."

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Mazzochi, a Republican from Elmhurst, has filed House Bill 5818, the “Protect Me From [Densified 4G/]5G Infrastructure Act,” which among other measures would require wireless companies to provide a plan to monitor and record daily levels of radio frequency emissions produced by Wireless equipment of Any G, analyze noise (noise is electromagnetic power transmitted through the air — noise that can ruin the Quiet Enjoyment of Streets (QES)) for so-called "small" Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (sWTFs) and ancillary equipment , and allow local governments to require new wireless antennas be installed on existing poles, where appropriate, to limit the number of new poles.

Mazzochi and officials from Western Springs, Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills held a press conference Thursday at Tower Green in Western Springs to talk about the need for legislation to return control of wireless infrastructure to local municipalities.

For Clarendon Hills Village President Len Austin, the issue is transparency. Telecommunication companies should be clear about

• how many 4G/5G small cells they want to install
• where they want to install them, and

• whether they would share infrastructure

• Austin said:

“Our residents are extremely reasonable and educated people that simply want answers that we can’t give them, because we don’t have the information and that is the hardest part. We don’t want to see (our villages) littered with multiple poles in multiple locations. . . . We want to make sure things are done in a fashion that is not detrimental to our property values.”

Clarendon Hills Village President Len Austin wants more transparency about how telecommunication companies plan to install Densified 4G/5G infrastructure. He spoke at a press conference about a bill State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi (left) is sponsoring. (Kimberly Fornek / Pioneer Press)

When the original Illinois sWTF bill, IL SB.1451 was passed in 2018, it had strong backing from the telecommunications industry (because it was a huge gift to this trillion-dollar industry), some bipartisan support and some, but not enough bipartisan opposition.,

The result has been the disaster that Ilinois cities, towns and villages are enduring today:

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Problems With So-Called “small” Wireless Telecommunications Facilities (sWTFs)

sWTFs are falsely branded. They are 25 million times more powerful than Macro Cell Towers, once you consider the metric that matters — the intensities of the toxic pollutant (RF/MW radiation) that reaches second- and third-story bedrooms:

What Really Matters: Excessive Effective Radiated Power (ERP)
That Results in RF Microwave Radiation Intensities in 2nd-Story+ Bedrooms

Cell Tower	Vertical Distance Off Ground	Horizontal Distance Away	Power in bedroom (2nd-story+)
small cell	35 feet	60 feet	50,000 avg. radiation units
Macro cell	200 feet	2,500 feet	0.002 avg. radiation units

Conclusion: 50,000 µW/m² from a so-called “small” cell is 25 million times more powerful than 0.002 µW/m² (-85 dBm) from a Macro cell —
Note: -85 dBm is a signal strength which provides 5 Bars of telecommunications service on a cell phone (source: link to The Truth About 4G/5G in Sacramento )

Sacramento, CA: 60 feet from home → children immediately sickened (© Windheim EMF Solutions) | San Francisco, CA: 10 feet from home → brain tumor diagnosed in three months | Santa Rosa, CA: 20 feet from home → home sold at 23% discount ($150,000+ loss in property value)

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Mazzochi, who was not a state legislator then, said:

“That bill, [SB.1451] was designed to take away a lot of local control options that were still left under FCC (Federal Communications Commission) provisions. It [unnecessarily] preempted local control.”

To drive that point home, Rep. Mazzochi chose a strategic wake-up day to introduce her new bill HB. 5818 — August 12, 2020 — the very day the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated portions of the Sept 2018 FCC Order 18-133, the Streamline sWTF Deployment Order:

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See Link to Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Case No. 18-72689 City of Portland et al. v FCC re: repeal of FCC Orders 18-111 and 18-133.

We therefore hold that the FCC’s requirement in the Small Cell Order that aesthetic regulations be “no more burdensome” than regulations applied to other infrastructure deployment is contrary to the controlling statutory provision. See 47 U.S.C. § 332(c)(7)(B)(i)(II).

We also hold that the FCC’s requirement that all local aesthetic regulations be “objective” is not adequately explained and is therefore arbitrary and capricious.

We therefore:

• GRANT the petitions as to those requirements,
• VACATE those portions of the rule and
• REMAND them to the FCC.”

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The current legislation allows companies, such as Verizon, to put a small cell pole in the right of way in front of your neighbor’s home, AT&T to put another antenna in the right of way in front of your house, and T-Mobile to put a small cell in the parkway on the other side of your house, with no input from the local government, Hinsdale Village Trustee Luke Stifflear said.

“It would be an absolute blight on all of our communities,” Stifflear said.

Hinsdale has been looking at the issue of wireless infrastructure for years, Stifflear said, and it’s not a “nimby” situation, meaning “not in my backyard,” where residents oppose anything that might negatively affect their property values.

“It will be in everybody’s front yard,” Stifflear said.

insdale Village Trustee Luke Stifflear says opposition to 5G infrastructure is not a "not in my backyard" situation. (Kimberly Fornek / Pioneer Press)

House Bill 5818 would not prohibit 5G cells and antennas or limit residents’ telecommunication access, Stifflear said. The bill would give control back to local municipalities, “to control aesthetics, to control timing and to control location,” he said. He encouraged all residents to support the bill proactively.

“The next step is to start getting all of our other suburban legislators signing on in support,” Mazzochi said. “The goal is to get this moving during the veto session in November.”

Some of her Democratic colleagues have told her 5G does not seem to be a big issue in their district, Mazzochi said, but the infrastructure may not have come to their district yet.

Towns, such as Lemont, Naperville and Western Springs, have received applications for 5G installations, Mazzochi said.

Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills officials, too, said Verizon sent them letters in March saying it planned to submit applications to install small cell equipment.

An attorney working for Western Springs, Hinsdale and Clarendon Hills replied to Verizon that due to village staff demands, cost and the time associated with reviewing the applications, and the “predictable community outcry,” those applications would be “extremely unwelcome” during the pandemic.

“Before you start installing these on someone’s block, you should really make sure you’ve got genuine buy-in from the people who live there, Mazzochi said. “Because if someone truly does not want this in their neighborhood, why should they have it shoved down their throats?”

Her bill also would help verify that all the FCC standards will be complied with and wireless companies’ predictions about radiation exposure and environmental impact are accurate.

“That is exactly why it is so important that our local communities be empowered to get that data . .to help keep our residents and families safe.”

The small cell wireless law from 2018 also is coming up for reauthorization in 2021, Mazzochi said. Since the General Assembly will have to look at the law anyway, it makes sense to re-examine and improve it now, she said.

Western Springs resident Kristen Rosenberg, a member of Stop 5G Western Springs and Neighbors, attended the press conference to support the push for local control.

“We want to vote people in who will fight for us,” Rosenberg said.

“People want to have a say in what goes in their public right of way,” said Nancy Perlman of Glen Ellyn. “Let each community choose.”

Mazzochi’s 47th representative district includes Elmhurst, Hinsdale, Western Springs, Oak Brook, Clarendon Hills and other towns.