March 1, 2024 News
EWEB has recently moved forward with installing so-called Smart Meters in Eugene in residences where owners opted-out of receiving them. Homeowners have received robocalls and postcards notifying us that the meters will be installed. A private contractor is going to homes and installing them quickly and without additional warning. Basically, you will get a card or call and they will show up within two weeks, whether you are home or not, and install the meter.
Homeowners who have replied to EWEB that we refuse the new meters have been told that we can only have electric and water service from them if we get the new meters. Since they have a monopoly in our neighborhoods, our homes can only get power and water from them. If we don’t work with them, we get no power, water or sewage service and our homes become unlivable. We have been told that either we accept the meters by March 15, or lose service from them. See this document.
The primary reasons homeowners do not want the meters are related to health and safety. The meters cause known health consequences that ruin lives. The meters also tend to catch fire and burn down homes. EWEB’s terms of service state that they are not legally responsible if their meter burns down our homes. The old, existing meters do not create this risk. They are safe and work, but do not allow surveillance—measuring everything we do with specific appliances—seen as a benefit of Smart Meters.
Between 2006 and 2013, Eugene went through a careful process of evaluating the harms and benefits of Smart Meters and decided to let individual EWEB customers decide if we wanted them. The decision also allowed us to get them then get rid of them if we did not like them. In 2018 a change of policy was voted in by the EWEB Board of Commissioners. It upheld the protections created in 2013. The EWEB General Manager has decided, on his own, to ignore those protections and the Board of Commissioners is going along with his decisions. Everyone has to get a meter to keep getting power and water, he says, and there is no going back. See our EWEB changes policy page.
Additionally, EWEB has changed its definition of “Opt-Out”. In the original decision, Opt-Out meant no Smart Meter would be installed. Opt-Out now means that a partially disabled Smart Meter will be installed. See our EWEB changes policy page. These partially disabled meters will not broadcast information to the utility, and will not produce Radio Frequency Radiation (RFR) that harms homeowners and residents. They will still produce Electro Magnetic Frequency Radiation (EMF) that harms homeowners and residents. These Electro Magnetic Fields are responsible for many of the health issues affecting those with the meters, and can produce long-term illness, fatal illness, and disabilities. See this document that discusses them. Or watch this more technical video. EWEB is pretending that only RFR is a concern, and that by deactivating broadcasts they are solving the problem. They are not. And the meters are still a fire hazard to homes.
Thousands of Eugene residents have existing disabilities affected by EMF and cannot live with the new meters. These include residents with pacemakers. EWEB is apparently violating the Americans with Disabilities ACT by forcing these meters on all residents. Successful legal action against the utility is possible. In our recent experience, the utility is not taking comments by residents seriously or responding to them, and legal action is probably necessary to get the utility to change course.
Next Post: What you can do