State to remove cell antenna
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
The state will remove a cell phone antenna system from a public housing complex in Halawa, a federal housing official said, following tenants' concerns about possible health risks from the radio waves it transmits.
Residents of Pu'uwai Momi have sought the removal of the antennas, pointing out the eight-antenna array is on a rooftop accessible to neighborhood children and is about 15 feet from the nearest bedroom window.
David Ziaya, director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development field operations office, said in a Jan. 21 letter to the tenants' lawyers, Michael Cruise and Gerard Jervis, that the agreement the state signed with the cellular phone company required HUD approval.
Ziaya said Stephanie Aveiro, executive director of the Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i, the state's public housing agency, said the state has decided to remove the antennas and would work with T-Mobile on its relocation.
Aveiro could not be reached for comment yesterday and it was not known when the antennas will be moved. Ziaya said his office is checking "to ensure that the antenna will be removed without unnecessary delay."
Roy Irei, T-Mobile's site development manager, deferred questions to the company's Seattle attorney, who could not be reached.
T-Mobile installed the antennas in March 2001 after the state leased rooftop space at Pu'uwai Momi to the company for $1,000 a month. Residents were angry that they were not consulted and heard about the plan only via a notice of installation, and that a public hearing wasn't held until last August.
A group of tenants in September asked HUD to order that the antennas be removed.
Dorene Ako, who lives on the ground floor of the building with the antennas, said the installation demonstrated a lack of concern for the tenants.
"If we had money," she said, "they wouldn't be putting it up on our roof."
She said she feels "great" about the latest decision.
"I'll be feeling more great when they take it down," Ako added. "Then I can throw a party."
Irei in September said the company followed federal safety guidelines in the installation and that the low-power radiation from the antennas is well within allowable limits.
Cruise yesterday said the decision was based on a HUD finding that the agreement constituted a lease. An amendment to federal housing laws required that, before property in a public housing project be leased for any purpose other than housing, the tenants be consulted and that the project be shown to be "in the tenants' best interest," Cruise said.
"The result is definitely a happy one for the tenants," he said. "The irony is that Congress has repeatedly tried to address this situation by enacting protections, but they just get overlooked."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
