A group of Cuyahoga Falls residents is suing the city over the mandatory installation of a new generation of electric and water smart meters.
The lawsuit, filed in Summit County Common Pleas Court, alleges health risks and privacy concerns involving the meters and the radio frequency electromagnetic field radiation (RF-EMF) they emit.
The residents are asking Judge Jennifer D. Towell for a declaratory judgment confirming the mandate violates the Ohio Constitution and barring the city from cutting off water or electric service for refusing to install the new meters.
No opt-out option for residents
Jensen Silvis, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a recent interview that he's not sure why the city didn't allow an opt-out provision.
"Many states have an opt-out process," he said.
Renee Hedges, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, said the new meter would be a threat to her battle with a rare cancer.
She said doctors have advised her to limit her exposure to the type of radiation produced by the new water and electric meters.
"I want an opt-out, that's all," Hedges said. "I want the option to not have that flow through my house. I'm trying to minimize my exposure."
'Overall health will be improved'
Hedges and Silvis said plaintiffs' concerns extend beyond health and include privacy issues with the meters.
Hedges said she's been unable to acquire detailed information about the new meters, but found in her research that some smart meters can transmit as much as 190,000 times a day.
The city, however, on its website, says the meters have a very limited transmission time. The city has about 25,000 electric customers and provides water to about 55,000 people.
"Total transmission time is typically less than 5 seconds per day," the city states on a question and answer page about the meters. "In fact, overall health will be improved, and privacy enhanced by replacing vehicles and manual meter reading visits to homes and businesses with environmentally clean radio and cellular communication."
Hedges, though, is skeptical about the frequency of RF-EMF pulses — which she said she can feel — and the amount and type of data the meters can acquire.
"It is unknown what the new meter could pick up acoustically, but any person with access to the collected data could probably decipher if a person were home over the period of just a few transmissions," the lawsuit states. "Further, depending on the meter installed, a consumer's water or electricity could be shut off remotely without due process."
Hedges said she was unable to get detailed information from the city on the extent of information the meters can acquire, where that information is stored and what parties can access it.
"I don't even know where our data goes," she said.
'We didn't know what else we could do'
Silvis said he's also concerned about other safety aspects of some smart meters. He said he's seen news stories that the meters could cause power surges to other homes.
City Law Director Janet M. Ciotola said in a email that the city has had smart meters for city-owned electric and water since 2008.
"The existing meters have become outdated, and these meters are coming to the end of their useful life," Ciotola said in the email. "The current software will no longer be supported. These meters must be replaced in order to maintain effective and efficient service for our resident-customers and to help keep costs low."
Hedges said the new smart water meters have AMI (advanced meter infrastructure) technology, which means they have two-way communication capabilities. Older AMR (automated meter reading) meters used one-way communication for data collection.
Silvis said the city's response to the lawsuit is due in early May. In the meantime, the city has agreed not to install smart meters at the plaintiffs' homes or cut off service, he said.
Hedges said she contacted Silvis after she felt she had no other option. He is currently involved in a similar case in Streetsboro that's scheduled to go to trial next month.
"We contacted Mr. Silvis because we didn't know what else we could do," she said.
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