PCIA TURNS TO WIRELESS TOWER COMPANIES
PCIA, now representing wireless communications tower companies, will try to convince govt. to simplify tower installment and operation processes, PCIA Pres. Jay Kitchen told press in Washington Tues. PCIA filed motion late Mon. asking FCC to dismiss Gulf of Mexico petition filed by Friends of the Earth (FoE), Forest Conservation Council and American Bird Conservancy (ABC) last month. PCIA also said it anticipated filing letter with FAA “within next couple of days” asking it to streamline rules and procedures affecting tower owners and managers. Former paging industry group, PCIA now will concentrate 90% of its attention on tower industry, splitting remaining 10% between Microwave Clearinghouse and frequency coordination, Kitchen said: “Wireless will always be a very strong part of our everyday life, and there is no wireless without towers.”
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Gulf petition seeking postconstruction environmental assessments under National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 5,400 registered antenna structures located on Gulf Coast was “illegal,” PCIA said. It said NEPA’s provisions couldn’t be complied with after project was authorized or constructed. However, environmental groups said environmental assessments didn’t include migratory birds. ABC Vp Gerald Winegrad said in interview wireless companies didn’t comply with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service guidelines when installing antennas. He said “the FCC categorically excluded most individual towers from environmental assessments and no cumulative impact review has been done… The FCC needs to do programmatic EIS (Environmental Impact Statement),” he said.
PCIA motion cited several reasons for dismissal of Gulf petition: (1) Petition was filed “untimely,” after subject antenna structures were authorized, registered and constructed, and after period during which environmental concerns must be raised and considered. (2) Commission lacked authority to grant relief requested by petitioners under NEPA because it “deals with prospective environmental effects only and cannot be used to assess effects after federal authorization has been obtained, or to attempt to alter completed projects.” (3) Petitioners failed to serve any of owners of antenna structures challenged in petition. PCIA alerted Commission to what it said were “the fatal procedural flaws in the Gulf petition,” and urged agency “to dismiss the petition on those grounds, thereby saving many PCIA members and hundreds of other tower owners from having to respond to this improperly filed petition.”
“FCC is acting illegally” in using NEPA to categorically exclude some of its actions, Winegrad told us. He said ABC had filed motions to deny registration of 10 towers in 5 states in July and Aug., but “we didn’t hear from the FCC.” He said 155 towers had been registered by FCC within last 2 weeks without prior environmental assessment or providing public with opportunity to comment: “We even didn’t know that they existed.” Winegrad said “we consider the FCC’s not responding to our petitions as denial. We are prepared to go to the Federal District Court to litigate” in case FCC doesn’t respond within next month.
Kitchen said PCIA would study “how big the [bird killing] issue is.” Winegrad said that according to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service there were “up to 50 million migratory birds dying every year” because of wireless towers. However, Kitchen said PCIA didn’t have any proof of any serious threat towers caused to migratory birds. Wireless and broadcast towers challenged by environmental groups in Gulf Coast region cover Ga., Tex., Ala., Fla., Miss. and La., and include towers owned mostly by PCIA members including American Tower Corp., Crown Castle USA, SpectraSite Communications, SBA Communications.