Wireless
The sparrow-like songbirds died on a snowy night in 1998 at a 420-foot tower in Kansas, part of an annual toll of at least 4 million birds killed in encounters with towers, groups including the National Audubon Society told the Federal Communications Commission. The red-eyed vireo, ovenbird and common yellowthroat are all drawn by tower lights, and slam into guy wires or drop exhausted after flying around the structures repeatedly, according to the groups.
The environmental organizations asked the FCC in an April 14 petition to require more extensive environmental reviews for new and modified towers. Deaths could be cut by changing illumination from steady lights that mesmerize migrating birds to blinking signals and by reducing the height of towers and the number of guy wires, the petitioners said. Wireless and broadcast industry trade groups say such measures are costly and unnecessary.
“This is an important issue,” Michael Copps, a Democrat who is the FCCs acting chairman, said in an e-mailed comment on May 15. The agency has moved too slowly on an issue it has pondered since 2003, Copps said in a statement last year calling for “a thorough look at whether our rules and practices contribute to millions of needless bird deaths.”
The FCC called for final public comments by June 15 and may act after that.
The National Association of Broadcasters, CTIA – The Wireless Association, and tower erectors have told the FCC new rules could delay construction, undermining national goals such as bringing high-speed Internet service to more Americans and improving communications for emergency workers.
More Science Needed
“There needs to be more science” before regulators act, said Andrea Williams, vice president of law at the Washington- based CTIA, whose members include Dallas-based AT&T and Basking Ridge, New Jersey-based Verizon Wireless.
Broadcasters also want more research, said Dennis Wharton, a spokesman for the Washington-based National Association of Broadcasters, with members such as NBC and ABC television, owned by Burbank, California-based Walt Disney Co.
Workers for tower companies “have not seen evidence” of massive bird kills around the structures, said Jim Goldwater, a lobbyist for the Watertown, South Dakota-based National Association of Tower Erectors, representing companies such as American Tower Corp. of Boston. “We disagree with their basic premise,” Goldwater said of the wildlife groups.
Flashing Lights
The FCC rejected a request by conservation groups for more intensive review of towers along the Gulf Coast in 2006, when the panel was under Republican leadership. The organizations sued, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit told the agency to reconsider. The groups have urged the FCC, now led by Democrats, to extend its review nationwide.
Wireless providers may agree to switch lights if the Federal Aviation Administration, in a study its conducting, concludes blinking lights are sufficiently conspicuous to aircraft pilots, said Williams of CTIA.
Modifying towers to comply with new regulations “would create a high economic burden,” a coalition of tower users told the FCC in April 2007, without estimating the total cost. It said changing lights alone would cost $18,000 on average for each tower 200-to-500 feet tall, and more than $100,000 for a structure taller than 1,000 feet.
Review Delays
CTIAs Williams, Goldwater of the tower erectors and Jackie McCarthy, a spokeswoman for PCIA – The Wireless Infrastructure Association, said in interviews they had no estimate of the nationwide cost of new regulations.
Wireless companies worry that extensive environmental reviews might delay towers to the extent that “our members cant meet their customers very aggressive time schedules,” said McCarthy, whose trade group is based in Alexandria, Virginia, in an interview.
The doomed Longspurs encountered the tower in western Kansas on Jan. 22, 1998, in snow and dense fog. Light attracts night- migrating songbirds, especially in clouds and fog, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told the FCC.
Birds Impaled