Posted on 07/10/2013 7:40:34 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
MADISON – Audrey Parker says she has paid her water bill on time for the past 20 years, but that didn’t stop the city of Baraboo from shutting off the great-grandmother’s water supply Tuesday.
The reason?
The 81-year-old Parker says it’s because she wouldn’t let the city replace her analog water meter with a new ‘smart meter’ – a battle she’s fought with City Hall for more than a year now.
“(Monday) I went to see the Mayor (Mike Palm). The cutoff day was this (Tuesday) morning and I thought the city might relent,” Parker told Wisconsin Reporter. “Yesterday they came and I wouldn’t let them in.”
City Hall vs. Grandma: Audrey Parker, 81, of Baraboo is fighting a one-woman battle against City Hall. The city shut off Parker’s water Tuesday after she repeatedly refused the installation of a ‘smart’ water meter. A little after 9 a.m. Tuesday, though, Parker left her house to go to the post office. When she returned she found a disconnect notice taped to her front door.
“I saw the blue flag marking the water line and I said, ‘Uh-oh,’” she said. “I thought they might have relented, but not this time. They’re trying to set an example of me.”
Parker received similar notices over the past year, but the city didn’t act on its threats.
Last September she went before the Baraboo Public Safety Committee to present her case to opt-out of the new meter.
Parker told the committee she’s had heart palpitations since the city installed ‘smart’ gas and electric meters outside her home in spring 2012, and that she had health and privacy concerns with the smart meter for her water.
And, she just doesn’t like the city telling her what to do inside her own home.
The committee denied the opt-out and gave Parker two weeks to allow the city to change the meter. Those two weeks turned into more than nine months.
Smart meters use radio frequency waves to send usage information between a utility customer’s home and their utility company. The high-tech gauges are a key link in the transition to the Smart Grid, the shared initiative of the federal government and the energy industry to modernize the nation’s electricity transmission and distribution system. There’s a lot of taxpayer money involved in a myriad programs to bring the Smart Grid and smart meters online.
The U.S. Department of Energy has spent at least $$2.96 billion on Smart Grid projects through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, also known as the stimulus.
The use of radio frequency, the technology used in microwaves, cell phones, Wi-Fi networks and baby monitors, has some, like Parker, concerned about the long-term health effects.
Opponents of the meters cite anecdotal evidence of a variety of health-related problems, from migraines and nausea to insomnia, seizures and heart problems. They point to studies on cellphones as evidence of the danger of the technology in smart meters. A New York Times article noted that “Researchers from the National Institutes of Health have found less than an hour of cellphone use can speed up brain activity,” raising questions about the health effects of low levels of radiation emitted from cellphones.
Parker says she won’t back down on refusing the smart meter, even if it means buying bottled water to drink and using rain barrel water to flush the toilet.
“I’ll get by without it,” the octogenarian said, noting she was raised on a farm without running water. “They’ve been heavy handed. They’re not acting like public officials, they’re acting like totalitarians. I don’t like to be threatened. I’m not going to buckle.
“I don’t think people buckled when they built this country,” she added.
Parker isn’t alone in her resistance.
In Illinois, two women were arrested for interfering with smart meter installation, according to KATU.com in Portland, Ore. In Texas, a woman pulled a gun on a utility worker.
Baraboo city officials could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
Last time *I* checked, water meters, just like gas and electric meters, were installed on the EXTERIOR of a building. Hence, no need to demand entry to the house.
And there IS such a thing as RF sensitivity. Hell, I can tell when I’m near a high-tension line, and the same “spider-sense” saved an airman from microwave burns back when I wore the Blue Suit. . .
There are numerous arguments about “smart meters”, including the capability to reduce usage imposed externally on the consumer. That doesn’t even get into the well-observed conclusion that “smart” meters always show a significant increase in electrial usage over the perfectly-useful “manual-read” meters. . .
The water meter has been inside every house I ever lived in.
In cold country like Wisconsin you CAN’T put the water meter outside. It would freeze.
It doesn’t really matter - even if these things could prolong her life by 50 years, if her answer is no, then no is the answer.
Ours are underground, near the street.
“This is not agenda 21.”
Keep saying that until you find your electric and water shut off when you protest the government’s actions -like she did.
She was not shut off for non-payment, she was shut off for protesting government decisions.
Water is a public utility, not a government service. When the government controls it they eventually turn it into a service which they control on their terms as we see here.
This is a huge issue you’re missing.
In days of your, when an opposing force set out to conquer a walled, well-protected city, they would besiege it: surround it and cut off its food and water supplies and communication with those outside the city, essentially turning the walled city into a prison. No food. No water. No communications. No hope.
Nothing in that equation has changed for controlling a population: deny it food, water, and communication. The smart grid is all about who controls your access to the bare essentials of life: food, water, and communication.
Does anyone really trust that these bastards who control it really have our best interests at heart???
If so, I have some swamp land to sell you.
Should’ve spelled it “yore.” My bad.
there should be a manual overide to block any interference.
As a public works director and city engineer in a past life, we changed out all of the analog meters to what is known as ARM (Automatic Radio Meter) meters. They use low level radio frequency to transmit the meter usage to a laptop in the utility truck. What used to take 6 meter readers to do now only takes one, and also allows the “meter reader” to perform the normal daily assignment while the laptop passively collects the data.
I like to consider myself an anti-bureaucracy bureaucrat and have always looked for ways to make government operation more efficient. I know there are a lot of folks on FR who think any gubmint employees are a waste, but there are some of us that are committed to improve the system.
I can state for a fact that my system was in no way connected to any UN/NSA/Smart Grid, surveillance network!
“The usage can be restricted/lowered electronically anytime they wish.”
And that, IMO, is the big dirty secret of Agenda 21 -politically-selective rationing. They will game utilities to serve their interests. Water, electricity, garbage collection, and anything they control will be used to further their political goals under the guise of bs ‘sustainability’ initiatives.
Sustainability is just their bs term for politically-selective rationing.
All of your usage info is available to the public. If I gave you my name and address you could call my city’s billing department and they will tell you my usage. This is all public info.
The solution is for each house to have off grid power sources.
Just pass cosmetic overide expemption laws ala the sat dish laws. Solar Panels may not be stoped by any local code or ordinance of HOA. Some HOA’s stop solar due to beauty rules.
Solar can’t replaces but it can substitute.
There is no way that the ARM water meters can throttle the water volume for peak/non peak demands. That would require operating the valves connected to the meter and a more elaborate source of power for the required mechanical operation than for the low level radio frequency it emits.
Use of smart technology can allow a utility through an advanced SCADA system to turn on/off pumps from the water source as the demands increase/decrease. The old school method was to manually operate pumping systems based upon historical peak hour demands even though it may not be needed and this saves the utility money, which means utility rates don’t go up to cover these costs. These systems also provide alerts for repairs, etc.
Thank you Shotgun. This really is a simple convenience for the water authority and the consumer/homeowner to make it easier to read the meter. The whole “turn off power to your A/C on a hot afternoon” is a different issue. Even then, I’ve had a smart (electric) meter for several years and have yet to see an occasion when it was employed.
TC
Huh. I had no idea...
The smart marketing would be to point out that fewer manual on/off switches mean fewer unionista employees.
Or that their time can be better spent doing real work as opposed to windshield time reading meters...
I was able to cut my staff from 6 to 4 and implement a preventative maintenance program.
thanks Shotgun For The Rational Descriptive Response On how AMR Water Meter Processing Functions The Power Needed To Turn Corroded Meter Valves Does Not Reside In AMR Systems
H
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