Towers Are Visual Pollution
Towers Are Visual Pollution
To the Editor:
I have learned, much to my dismay, of a proposed 150-foot-tall cell tower to be built here in town. I donât see this as an issue of progress versus aesthetics; this is an issue of whether we should build a 15-story-tall structure in a community that doesnât have a building that is more than two stories tall, when other alternatives are available.
Fifteen-story-tall cell towers and 120-foot-tall power transmission towers are visual pollution. They impact the quality of our lives by putting a blight on the natural scenery. The only reason for such tall structures is that they are cheaper to build than many small less noticeable structures or in the case of high tension lines to bury them. Certainly we all use power, and for the most part, cell phones have become a necessity as well, but cost should not be an acceptable argument to pollute. I will go on the record that I am willing to pay more for cell phone service and electricity, so I donât have to see these hideous structures.
Look how far we have come to protect our environment by voting with our pocket book. We pay extra to haul our trash to a regional facility, instead of creating landfills or allow open air burning. We pay more for sanitation disposal instead of directly discharging our waste into streams. We pay more for our cars to install catalytic converters instead of releasing untreated gasses into the air. We pay more for housing instead of filling wetlands to create more building sites. None of these extra costs have harmed our way of life, in fact, we have all benefited from them.
If you donât want to see Newtown visually polluted, come to the public hearing at Edmond Town Hall on March 27 starting at 3 pm and tell the siting council that saving money by building a 150-foot-cell tower does not outweigh any adverse environmental effects that would result from the construction, operation, or maintenance of such a tower. Tell them to get onto the âprotect the environment band wagonâ and insist on less polluting alternatives, even if it means that it will cost more.
Kim J. Danziger
5 Stonewall Ridge Road, Newtown                         March 10, 2003