What is going on?
Dewey Beach’s federal, state and town representatives are working very hard on our behalf to reverse what Verizon did during the fall of 2020 under Covid lockdown restrictions by placing 5G telephones in environmentally sensitive areas that have encroached on our beaches. The areas that these massive telephone poles have been placed in are in the “state's rights of way” and are legally placed. Another company named Tilson has applied for permits to place 9 more. AT&T is now starting similar inquiries in the area and more carriers will be coming.
Although wireless carriers have the ability to do this and the FCC is giving broad authority for wireless companies to expand their 5G networks, no one ever imagined that Verizon would be so irresponsible and place telephone poles in environmentally sensitive areas. What type of company thinks a network design for a coastal town with numerous environmentally sensitive areas should ever include placing poles that encroach on families, beaches and our precious wildlife? The even more concerning issue is that these wireless carriers have the ability to design less invasive network solutions by placing their equipment on buildings, telephone and light poles in more commercial areas and they can use better technology and more powerful (and expensive) transmitters with greater reach.
Our political representatives are doing a great job standing-up for us and we appreciate them, but as citizens we now need to STAND UP AND MAKE SOME NOISE!! The literal line in the sand is being drawn in Dewey Beach, Delaware by environmentalist around the country against big wireless. Deweys fight is on behalf of every small beach and coastal town in the United States. Our environment, beaches and oceans need us now!
Beach towns support 5G technology, just not placing telephone poles near beaches and oceans. This is about raising awareness of the most common sense notion there is about building out wireless networks - don’t place a massive telephone pole near a beach when there are other engineering solutions available.
Big corporations are encroaching on our beaches and their activity is altering our coastlines and the benefits it provides to wildlife and the individuals that utilize them. One of the largest capital projects for wireless companies in decades is to build out their 5G networks and those plans include encroaching on beaches, sand dunes and oceans. Our beaches and oceans are critically important to our coastal wildlife ecosystems and the natural carbon storage and release areas that help our planet continue to breath and live.
This latest assault on our coastlines is happening quietly and quickly and most small beach towns are not prepared to defend themselves against these big corporate efforts and few people know these networks are coming to every coastal town in the United States. When you hear one company is putting up 5G telephone poles in your area, rest assured that the other major carriers will be soon placing a pole close by as the wireless industry doesn’t believe they can "co-locate" 5G equipment on the same pole. Three or four more telephone poles will be placed in close proximity to the first one - think about that picket fence image and the impact that will have on the wildlife and individuals that use the beaches and want to enjoy the view of the ocean. There are rarely legal grounds to force wireless companies to move their telephone poles as they have tens of billions in profits with hundreds of powerful lawyers that are expert at due diligence and getting them placed. A citizen may hear of a rumor about a "legal technicality" that may become the solution they are looking for so badly to get poles removed, but it won’t happen and those romantic notions need to give way to the reality of either fighting through our public voice or losing.
Are we going to let these corporations get away with what they are doing?