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Community Corner

Water Shut Off Notice from Wauwatosa based on Mandatory AMI Project

The City of Wauwatosa sent out Water Shut Off Notices to residents based on mandatory compliance in an AMI "Smart Meter" project - a controversial issue. Few municipalities in the country have taken it to this level of coercion, and some state utility regulators have forced municipalities to offer opt-out options.

This technology is controversial, to say the least, and it has not been studied on a large enough scale over a large enough period of time for the public to be absolutely sure of its affects and potential dangers. There are many anecdotes to the effect that this technology has caused health problems and various research that challenges the mainstream thinking about safety. Anti-smart meter consumer sites include stopsmartmeters.org and smartmeterdangers.org. A quick Google search shows news reports of controversy from around the country when municipalities have adopted the technology. I am aware of studies that have supposedly vindicated the safety technology and arguments for it, but these are limited in time and scope, and this technology remains controversial. Therefore, a mandatory requirement with threat of water shut off is extremely troubling. 

Many issues (cigarettes, for example), it took society decades to sufficiently study and understand to prove the risks. Establishing a scientific link between a particular cause and harmful effects is not always an easy or fast process. In society today, there are questions over things like BPAs, GMOs, and this AMI technology. In recent decades, scientists who questioned the safety of BPAs were effectively ostracized. Today, published reports in medical journals have vindicated their concerns. Whether concerns over such things are ultimately born out over time, it's not the place of government to force the public to into using something surrounded by such controversy. A city should not be threatening citizens with "water shut-off" to force compliance. The ethics and legality of this is highly questionable, and Wauwatosa should immediately stop this practice. Other PUCs in the country have stopped municipalities from imposing mandatory AMI/smart meters. I am asking the PSC to intervene immediately with the city of Wauwatosa to force them withdraw the shut off notice.

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