Southern Water's AMR Meter - Southern Water launched Universal Metering Programme (2015)
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Southern Water's (S.W.) AMR meter marketing strategy is built on misinterpretations. They say most of us will save money, but according to a report from the European Commission and Consumer's Editors it is not true and therefore nearly half of EU countries have decided against a large scale roll-out of such meters.
S.W. says that the AMR meters are safe, they'll prevent leaks, they are free, they are good for the environment and that we must have them. All those claims are not entirely true. Let us look closer at those claims: - Claiming that these smart or intelligent devices save us money and lover our bills is a lie by definition. Intelligent Meters are just a gimmick with no ability to lower anything. Only people can do it and it's better if they do it as a part of their conscious decision making, which should be based on love and compassion. If the decision making is being based on fearful thinking (as opposed to clear thinking) than we make our choices based on fear. Threatening tactics are often used by corporations to control people by keeping them in a narrow and limiting frequency. Threatening letters are just a perfect example of this approach. The question is: Do we want to be threatened by corporations and live in fear? Or do we want them to respect our Human Rights? - Only a very small percentage of people will save on water bills (as opposed to most people). Perhaps single occupants living in studio flats or small one bedroom flats will see the benefit of a meter. But if they get an Intelligent meter, then they will be affected by it's radiation even more due to their living space being in closer proximity to the meter, hence they will be absorbing the radiation most of the time in comparison to someone who lives (and moves around) in a big 3 or 4 bedroom house. The big families however will pay the most, no matter how environmentally conscious they are. That's not scaremongering, it is a fact. - Preventing leaks can be done simply by reading our meters before we go to bed ad comparing those numbers with ones found in the morning. Providing that we didn't use any water all night the numbers should stay the same. If not than we have a leak. No AMR meter can detect it - humans and their common sense can do it and it's free of charge! - The Intelligent Meter is not safe at all, in fact it's a negligence for them to impose it on the public. S.W. and their agents claim a water meter cannot be hacked, they are wrong. Individuals with criminal intent can access your meter and easily establish when you are at home or even sell information to other criminals. The hand held Meter Readers that are available online (we do not want to disclose the type to protect those who already have meters installed). - They say that the meter will be provided for free. This of course is not true. All such meters will be paid for by us - the consumer. This topic was questioned by the Commons public accounts committee, government officials admitted that this cost would largely be passed on to consumers through a levy. The price will be reflected in the monthly payments, and we will overpay those meters just as we overpay for those 'free' smart phones taken on contracts ergo energy suppliers will be without a doubt the real winners in this. - Saving the environment? How preposterous is the suggestion of collecting water meter data by drive by vehicles for example, in the day and age when everyone is trying to cut down CO2 emissions? Why we can't do it online or by phone, just like we do with other utility suppliers is a mystery!? - None of the employees we spoke to knew about the adverse health effects of these meters. They just repeat what they are told without a pinch of critical thinking and that is scary! "The highest form of ignorance is when you accept/reject something you don't know anything about". Wayne Dyer This device has been deployed prior to full spectrum analyses of the radiation and accumulative safety tests has been performed hence the precautionary principle, which puts a burden of providing the evidence and proving that these devices are safe on the Southern Water was not met. Health and safety issues have risen in the USA where this whole program started to be rolled out. They are one step ahead and can therefore report more about this and give us a better idea about the negative effects of these RF radiation emitting devices causing illness or functional impairments. The frequency they operate at has the ability to resonate within the brain cavity causing detrimental human health effects and also environmental degradation. We need to look at our self-interests. We all want to be happy and everyone is a bit happier when healthy, right? Our pursuit of happiness should include living in a healthy environment surrounded by happy, healthy people. We all have a responsibility for our actions so we need to act when we see something that is reasonably foreseeable to cause environmental damage. RF radiation and EMF fields are real and present threats to the environment we all live in, therefore it's unlawful to pay someone who is aggravating criminal damage to the Earth. Their actions can be considered as reckless and criminal because they have been given all the information about the negative effects of those fields. (Independent scientific studies, scientist appeals and international concerns). All consumers need to see themselves as Environmental Activists, because our health and safety and environmental impacts are being completely left out from the equation. All you can find in the data sheet of the Arad Water Meter that Southern Water is using is data about it's dimensions, performance and accuracy, but not a single word about the frequency, it's maximum and minimum strength required for data transfer, how far it should be from people, how often it transmits the signal etc. There is also nothing in ARAD Case Study Southern Water’s AMR Implementation. Here is how the multi-billion businesses are failing the basic requirements to disclose important and sensitive data, yet they can still make their way into people's homes, at least to those, where uninformed public lives. People are not stupid, their only mistake is, that they trusts their utility suppliers. The marketing division knows how to describe things in a way that they appear likeable and then these half truths are spoon-fed to the public via the leaflets. We encourage everyone to not to trust companies and corporations, and rather to connect with people who are not going to provide profit driven opinions. We have spent much time researching this topic, but please do not take our word for granted, watch the clips and do your own research. See also: 'Precautionary Approach'. ICEMS, in their Beneveto Resolution (2006) and Venice Resolution (June 2008), have stated their concern for the effects of human exposure to electromagnetic fields on health. Made up of scientists, medical doctors and engineers from around the world, ICEMS "are compelled to confirm the existence of non-thermal effects of electromagnetic fields on living matter, which seem to occur at every level of investigation from molecular to epidemiological. We, who are at the forefront of this research, encourage an ethical approach in |
setting of exposure standards which protect the health of all, including those who are more vulnerable. … new standards should be developed to take various physiological conditions into consideration, e.g., pregnancy, newborns, children, and elderly people."
So why are they all so eagerly trying to push forward? Well simply because they will also be able to introduce the new tariffs, which they forgot to mention of course. We need to remember that all corporations care about is revenue and profits. And governments taxing this profits so they are helping corporations to squeeze as much profit from consumers as possible. Here we'd like to quote Judge Jean Paul Steves (Supreme Court Justice): ,,Corporations often operate without morals because they have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires.”
Our MPs warn that the public may end up paying for obsolete smart meters that save very little and the same outcome has been reached by a BBC report . Most householders are already paying eye-wateringly high utility bills, whilst using as little energy as possible. Bullying people to have a smart aka intelligent meter is like telling people on benefits to take out a contract on a new smart phone, whilst they are perfectly happy with their old one. They also state it is for free on contract, but we all know that's just an illusion when we compare the contract prices with sim only ones.
To wrap it all up, those meters can barely help those in fuel poverty – those who need help most. It's just an expensive, unnecessary toy, with the ability to pollute our living environment, everyone and everything living within it's range. Whilst the energy is still being produced by obsolete and toxic methods.
Revelations about the dangers of smart meters and the deceptions perpetrated on people are just beginning. Please, let us invoke the precautionary principle and implement a moratorium now, before any further damage is done. To provide perspective, it seems appropriate at this point to quote the Attorney General for the state of Illinois (USA) who made some important common sense observations, as appropriate today as they were in 2011: “The utilities want to experiment with expensive and unproven smart grid technology, yet all the risk for this experiment will lie with consumers. … The pitch is that smart meters will allow consumers to monitor their electrical or water usage, helping them to reduce consumption and save money. … Consumers don’t need to be forced to pay billions for so-called smart technology to know how to reduce their utility bills. We know to turn down the heat or shut off the lights (or when to take a bath and when to flush the toilet on our case). The utilities have shown no evidence of billions of dollars in benefits to consumers from these new meters, but they have shown they know how to profit. I think the only real question is: How dumb do they think we are?” (Reference).
Legislation: The Water Industry Act 1999 (Chapter 9, Part 1, Section 7) and subordinate Regulations, prescribe the circumstances in which we can fit meters. These regulations have recently been amended to include the power to universally meter households if the water company’s area has been determined to be an area of serious water stress. Provided that we act within the legal framework outlined above, customers cannot refuse the installation of a water meter under our universal metering programme.
Conclusion: THIS LEGISLATION ONLY ALLOWS SOUTHERN WATER TO INSTALL A METERING DEVICE. AMR and SMART METERS ARE NOT COMPULSORY AND YOU ARE NOT BREAKING THE LAW IF YOU REFUSE THEM! DON'T LET THEM BULLY YOU WITH THEIR "NO ACCESS CHARGES". WRITE TO THEM TO TELL THEM YOU DO NOT OBJECT TO HAVE A METERING DEVICE, BUT YOU REQUIRE ONE WHICH DOESN'T EMIT ANY KIND OF RADIATION. You don't have to accept it. They can't force you to have this kind of meter.
The only way this is going to stop is by people saying NO! Make sure that you do word your complaint letter correctly: Refuse an Intelligent aka AMR meter (not meter as such). There is enough evidence giving us reason to believe that it may negatively affect our health as concluded by Bioinitiative group (Biologically-based Exposure Standards for Low-intensity Electromagnetic Radiation - The compete report can be found in our links section). Request the analogue meter to be installed and be firm. Don't let the scaremongering and their pressure tactics get to you, no matter how hard they try we need to be ready to protect ourselves against corporate interests.
Any meter can make a certain group of people more anxious about water consumption, hence will reduce usage after they receive a meter. However the analogue meter would provide the same effect, without known drawbacks. There is no need for drive by data collection, because the vast majority of people can use the phone or can now submit meter readings online.. just saying.
Once their meters are installed it will be much harder to stop gas and electricity providers to following the same model, which will turn our households into a life-size microwave ovens therefore we encourage EVERYONE to do not give consent, refuse the AMR meter and request the analogue meter, which can fulfill your obligation to allow Southern Water to meter your water usage, but does so without possible risks to environment and to your health. These meters have proved themselves to be accurate and reliable and if your Water Supplier is really so concerned about water metering and customer service then they should have no problem in providing you with this service.
On the other hand, if they are concerned about their profit margins and do not care about you as a customer then they will keep trying to put pressure on you and threatening you with no access charges and possibly even a water disconnection notice. Southern Water and DEFRA identified East and West Sussex as an area of future water stress hence they want to justify this need for compulsory metering. One could ask, why they need to imply such pressure tactics in regards of AMR meters on customers? Southern Water justifies their metering program on the basis of future water stress issue. This will be caused, but NOT by people, but as a result of fracking. Water UK acknowledged: "The quantities of water needed vary by site and throughout the gas exploration and production process, but the demand could have an impact on local water resources. This demand may be met from a number of sources, including the public water supply".
Water shortage and hydraulic fracturing: Water Utility Companies want to impose this Water Tax to compensate for trillions of gallons of water, which are going to disappear from the surface of the Earth after they will be pressure blasted at dense shale rocks, opening up fissures through which the tiny bubbles of methane can be released. The amount of water needed to drill and fracture one horizontal shale gas well generally ranges from about 2 million to 4 million gallons, depending on the basin and formation characteristics. Water is by far the largest component of fracking fluids. Our conclusion is that water metering is applied in the areas where the licences for fracking were issued to satisfy this industry's thirst for water!
In other words we are going to pay for our government's reckless idea to focus on fossil fuels when we should be lowering our emissions, becoming more 'green' and setting an example for less developed countries. The worst thing is that fracking will pollute even more water, which means that this burden will be again reflected on us and we will be asked to pay for it in the future. The content of the fracking liquid is not known, so it could be very toxic, harmful chemicals are used and because it's labeled as a 'Trade Secret' we won't be able to find out until disaster strikes, which will be too late.
The extraction of so much water for fracking has raised concerns about the ecological impacts to aquatic resources, as well as de-watering of drinking water aquifers. The Fracking industry will be injecting water into impermeable wells, this means that this water will disappear from the Earth's surface and won't be able to recharge groundwater sources any more – therefore the fracking industry will be removing the water permanently from the hydrologic cycle. It’s from the hydrologic cycle that the Earth receives precipitation. This is the real cause of serious future water stress!
The question is this how much oil and gas will we really gain from it and at what cost, considering the amount of energy and other resources (water, chemicals, lubricants and other toxins such as acids) needed in order to obtain this resources? What if they cause a major incident, what if over 150.000 litres of fracking fluid starts boiling up from thousands of feet underground, spewing into the streets and into sewers and streams? The water can be radioactive. Utopia? No, it happened already and it'll happen again because there is an officially admitted 10% failure rate of fracking wells after 1 year and 60% of them will be leaking after 20 years, which means that within 20 years we can have up to 250,000 fracking wells leaking water with toxins and radioactive material back into UK's aquifers.
It has been made public that oil prices may not even be lower and that the public will not benefit from this reckless idea at all. This is environmental terrorism happening on our land with our water and at our expense! If we are living in an area of future water stress then should we allow millions of gallons of water to be mixed with chemicals, which will contaminate the ground water and potentially our rivers, lakes and perhaps even to our streets? Isn't this a recipe for natural disaster?
It's not a hypothesis - its happened already in Arlington (USA): 100 homes in Arlington had to be evacuated as fracking fluid spilled out of a drilling site onto the city streets and Pennsylvania: Fracking linked to radioactive river water.
Then there is a risk that Methane can be released from those wells during the drilling process. The latest report, published by a group of 15 scientists, found that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is significantly underestimating the amount of methane released during natural gas production. Specifically, the report concludes that fugitive methane emissions could be 50% higher than EPA estimates (source). NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who published a study in 2009 in the journal Science that suggested that the interaction of methane with certain atmospheric aerosols might well amplify the global warming potential of methane, rendering it up to 105 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the 20-year time frame (source).
There is a lot of money in both Fracking and the Smart meter industry, indeed. Companies such as Guerilla, Arad and Siemens are sub-contracted to carry out the work and we have to remember where there is money, there are lobbyists. Still, Southern Water has no jurisdiction in bullying their customers into having this type of meter installed. Southern Water should also be firmly against fracking, which is the real threat to our scarce resource levels and will cause serious water stress and water contamination in the area!
These issues were addressed by the Green Party MEP for South East England Keith Taylor however Southern Water's statement on fracking remained the same:
'We recognise that there are potential opportunities to extract shale gas within our operational area and would not wish to hinder economic development in the region.'
We'd love to see someone investigate the 'true costs' incurred by the public:
Anyone who is a systems thinker understands that any business that relies on the use of such vast tracks of land and water, on the surface and underneath the surface of the Earth, is a highly suspect business. The costs, we'd bet, out way the benefits for the public.
The fact that both industries have millions to spend on assuring they are protecting the health and welfare of the communities they do business in, is again suspect. Let's push for higher transparency and progress towards renewable resources, and the consumption of renewable energy to heat our homes, cook our food, and travel. Let’s educate others to be able to connect the dots and let’s protect the environment, which doesn't belong to governments or corporations, but to all human beings on this planet.
What can we do to prevent it: It is our human right to have clean drinking water, therefore we should declare a public health emergency and demand a moratorium on the unprecedented water wasting on fracking and involuntary radiation exposures caused by Intelligent or Smart Meters! These two issues are closely related as we described above.
We need to create pressure on our water supplier, if we do not want to be zapped by high pulse RF radiation every 12 seconds for the rest of our lives. We need to demand that this project is abolished. Civil disobedience and not giving the consent and right to access our properties including our bank accounts (cancelling direct debits and setting up standing orders may be necessary and the payment then has to be done four days before the actual date of payment according to Southern Water website!)
We need to exercise our human rights.
Southern Water will (after you cancel direct debit) send you yet another threatening letter informing you that the whole balance of your account is due for immediate payment and they will include the bank giro slip as well. Truth is that this is again just a pressure tactic and not based on truth at all. Southern Water fails to follow their own guidelines, which clearly state that your account needs to be paid in full ONLY if we miss a payment. Are they yet again caught up lying and threatening their customers? Simple answer is: Yes! However you need to request standing order details, and tell them when you'll make the payment after cancelling direct debit (here's the link) and their phone number: +443303030277.
Then make sure that you make the payment on time, and this way you will not be overcharged and will therefore have peace of mind that you are paying no more than is necessary for your water usage. You give them 'no access to charge you extra' and they'd have to take you to court in order to get the 'no access charge' applied to your account, which we would welcome because we made them aware of public opposition due to health concerns. We did not consent to AMR/Smart meter but we explicitly requested an analogue meter for the purpose of water metering, which means that 'no access' can't be applied because it did not happen, in other words we gave access for meter installation (but requested a non RF emitting meter).
What to do if Southern Water or another utility company already installed an AMR Smart meter: If the water company already installed an AMR meter, then ask them to replace it with analogue meter (supply them with links about health risks so they can't tell that they were not informed). If they will not comply with your request than I'd suggest you to get in touch with us. We are currently raising awareness about this issue in order to reach critical mass needed to challenge our legal system with this case. Subscribe to Stop Electro Smog and we will keep you updated!
Most common lies of utility industry:
“There is a law coming into place in 2020 that will force you to have an AMR/Smart Meter”
“AMR meters are not Smart meters and they don’t emit microwaves”
” Our meters are safer than mobile phones"
"AMR and Smart meters emit RF frequency, which is perfectly safe"
“Smart Meters save 10% on your energy bill”
“Smart Meters are free and you won't need to pay a penny for them”
“Smart Meters do emit microwaves, but less than mobile phones”
"AMR meters emit only 0.01 micro watts/cm2"
"Smart meters only emit radiation when communicating with the drive by vehicle"
These statements are false. The signal is much higher than they dare to admit and the signal is sent at least every 12 seconds from each meter and this is not safe. Can you imagine your child playing next to a cupboard full of meters or drawing on the pavement 10cm next to an AMR meter? Can you imagine the exposure levels for people living in a block of flats, where everyone has to have a meter?
AMR meters are actually considered to be the worst kind of meters because they broadcast at full power constantly, which in many cases can emit even more RF radiation than you get from Laptops or Mobile phones as the comparison video shows.
So why are they all so eagerly trying to push forward? Well simply because they will also be able to introduce the new tariffs, which they forgot to mention of course. We need to remember that all corporations care about is revenue and profits. And governments taxing this profits so they are helping corporations to squeeze as much profit from consumers as possible. Here we'd like to quote Judge Jean Paul Steves (Supreme Court Justice): ,,Corporations often operate without morals because they have no consciences, no beliefs, no feelings, no thoughts, no desires.”
- The government sees this as an opportunity to tax Southern Water's income so it's in their interest to support it.
- Ofcom is a seller of the frequency and charges a yearly fee for it hence it's also involved and makes profits from it. Besides Ofcom does not have statutory responsibilities for health and is therefore unable to comment on such issues.
- Government's health organisations are not impartial because they really can't go against the body, which created them. They have to deliver what the government want to hear, in which case they take the most benevolent exposure limits to be covered. This of course suits the industry and economic interests of the country and that's how the vicious circle is made.
- Not long ago almost every cigarette company twisted science to support its products and rephrased expert findings to show that smoking had “no known adverse effects”.
- DEFRA (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) decided not to include negative effects of non-ionising radiation in their report
(Defra - Consultation on water metering in areas of serious water stress) but they are spot on with their statement: "We think it's unlikely that savings of between £31 and £60 a year would prompt most consumers to make significant changes to their water use habits. Therefore we should consider carefully how to incentivise all consumers to use less water, and we should be careful about assuming that having a water meter and paying for what you use will be a sufficient incentive for most consumers".
They also stated that in Jun 2015: "the majority of the reservoirs ended the month close to their average levels or above".
Our MPs warn that the public may end up paying for obsolete smart meters that save very little and the same outcome has been reached by a BBC report . Most householders are already paying eye-wateringly high utility bills, whilst using as little energy as possible. Bullying people to have a smart aka intelligent meter is like telling people on benefits to take out a contract on a new smart phone, whilst they are perfectly happy with their old one. They also state it is for free on contract, but we all know that's just an illusion when we compare the contract prices with sim only ones.
To wrap it all up, those meters can barely help those in fuel poverty – those who need help most. It's just an expensive, unnecessary toy, with the ability to pollute our living environment, everyone and everything living within it's range. Whilst the energy is still being produced by obsolete and toxic methods.
Revelations about the dangers of smart meters and the deceptions perpetrated on people are just beginning. Please, let us invoke the precautionary principle and implement a moratorium now, before any further damage is done. To provide perspective, it seems appropriate at this point to quote the Attorney General for the state of Illinois (USA) who made some important common sense observations, as appropriate today as they were in 2011: “The utilities want to experiment with expensive and unproven smart grid technology, yet all the risk for this experiment will lie with consumers. … The pitch is that smart meters will allow consumers to monitor their electrical or water usage, helping them to reduce consumption and save money. … Consumers don’t need to be forced to pay billions for so-called smart technology to know how to reduce their utility bills. We know to turn down the heat or shut off the lights (or when to take a bath and when to flush the toilet on our case). The utilities have shown no evidence of billions of dollars in benefits to consumers from these new meters, but they have shown they know how to profit. I think the only real question is: How dumb do they think we are?” (Reference).
Legislation: The Water Industry Act 1999 (Chapter 9, Part 1, Section 7) and subordinate Regulations, prescribe the circumstances in which we can fit meters. These regulations have recently been amended to include the power to universally meter households if the water company’s area has been determined to be an area of serious water stress. Provided that we act within the legal framework outlined above, customers cannot refuse the installation of a water meter under our universal metering programme.
Conclusion: THIS LEGISLATION ONLY ALLOWS SOUTHERN WATER TO INSTALL A METERING DEVICE. AMR and SMART METERS ARE NOT COMPULSORY AND YOU ARE NOT BREAKING THE LAW IF YOU REFUSE THEM! DON'T LET THEM BULLY YOU WITH THEIR "NO ACCESS CHARGES". WRITE TO THEM TO TELL THEM YOU DO NOT OBJECT TO HAVE A METERING DEVICE, BUT YOU REQUIRE ONE WHICH DOESN'T EMIT ANY KIND OF RADIATION. You don't have to accept it. They can't force you to have this kind of meter.
The only way this is going to stop is by people saying NO! Make sure that you do word your complaint letter correctly: Refuse an Intelligent aka AMR meter (not meter as such). There is enough evidence giving us reason to believe that it may negatively affect our health as concluded by Bioinitiative group (Biologically-based Exposure Standards for Low-intensity Electromagnetic Radiation - The compete report can be found in our links section). Request the analogue meter to be installed and be firm. Don't let the scaremongering and their pressure tactics get to you, no matter how hard they try we need to be ready to protect ourselves against corporate interests.
Any meter can make a certain group of people more anxious about water consumption, hence will reduce usage after they receive a meter. However the analogue meter would provide the same effect, without known drawbacks. There is no need for drive by data collection, because the vast majority of people can use the phone or can now submit meter readings online.. just saying.
Once their meters are installed it will be much harder to stop gas and electricity providers to following the same model, which will turn our households into a life-size microwave ovens therefore we encourage EVERYONE to do not give consent, refuse the AMR meter and request the analogue meter, which can fulfill your obligation to allow Southern Water to meter your water usage, but does so without possible risks to environment and to your health. These meters have proved themselves to be accurate and reliable and if your Water Supplier is really so concerned about water metering and customer service then they should have no problem in providing you with this service.
On the other hand, if they are concerned about their profit margins and do not care about you as a customer then they will keep trying to put pressure on you and threatening you with no access charges and possibly even a water disconnection notice. Southern Water and DEFRA identified East and West Sussex as an area of future water stress hence they want to justify this need for compulsory metering. One could ask, why they need to imply such pressure tactics in regards of AMR meters on customers? Southern Water justifies their metering program on the basis of future water stress issue. This will be caused, but NOT by people, but as a result of fracking. Water UK acknowledged: "The quantities of water needed vary by site and throughout the gas exploration and production process, but the demand could have an impact on local water resources. This demand may be met from a number of sources, including the public water supply".
Water shortage and hydraulic fracturing: Water Utility Companies want to impose this Water Tax to compensate for trillions of gallons of water, which are going to disappear from the surface of the Earth after they will be pressure blasted at dense shale rocks, opening up fissures through which the tiny bubbles of methane can be released. The amount of water needed to drill and fracture one horizontal shale gas well generally ranges from about 2 million to 4 million gallons, depending on the basin and formation characteristics. Water is by far the largest component of fracking fluids. Our conclusion is that water metering is applied in the areas where the licences for fracking were issued to satisfy this industry's thirst for water!
In other words we are going to pay for our government's reckless idea to focus on fossil fuels when we should be lowering our emissions, becoming more 'green' and setting an example for less developed countries. The worst thing is that fracking will pollute even more water, which means that this burden will be again reflected on us and we will be asked to pay for it in the future. The content of the fracking liquid is not known, so it could be very toxic, harmful chemicals are used and because it's labeled as a 'Trade Secret' we won't be able to find out until disaster strikes, which will be too late.
The extraction of so much water for fracking has raised concerns about the ecological impacts to aquatic resources, as well as de-watering of drinking water aquifers. The Fracking industry will be injecting water into impermeable wells, this means that this water will disappear from the Earth's surface and won't be able to recharge groundwater sources any more – therefore the fracking industry will be removing the water permanently from the hydrologic cycle. It’s from the hydrologic cycle that the Earth receives precipitation. This is the real cause of serious future water stress!
- It has been estimated that the transportation of a million gallons of water (fresh or waste water) requires hundreds of truck trips, increasing the greenhouse gas footprint of oil and gas and contributing to air pollution.
- Fracking can increase the risk of potential seismic activity, which will consequently contaminate our water by it's migration.
- Groundwater contamination can still occur even if fracking operations are not in proximity to a water source; water migration and water seepage can transport these chemicals for miles.
- Additionally, since monitoring techniques and location placements can be difficult and expensive for underground wells, water contamination has occurred without the contamination source ever being identified.
- Water contamination may also occur if man-made barriers fail as a result of time, pressure, or human error
(source: Water Resources Needed to Hydraulically Fracture California’s Monterey Shale for Oil, MSc. Christina J. Pepino, University of San Francisco).
The question is this how much oil and gas will we really gain from it and at what cost, considering the amount of energy and other resources (water, chemicals, lubricants and other toxins such as acids) needed in order to obtain this resources? What if they cause a major incident, what if over 150.000 litres of fracking fluid starts boiling up from thousands of feet underground, spewing into the streets and into sewers and streams? The water can be radioactive. Utopia? No, it happened already and it'll happen again because there is an officially admitted 10% failure rate of fracking wells after 1 year and 60% of them will be leaking after 20 years, which means that within 20 years we can have up to 250,000 fracking wells leaking water with toxins and radioactive material back into UK's aquifers.
It has been made public that oil prices may not even be lower and that the public will not benefit from this reckless idea at all. This is environmental terrorism happening on our land with our water and at our expense! If we are living in an area of future water stress then should we allow millions of gallons of water to be mixed with chemicals, which will contaminate the ground water and potentially our rivers, lakes and perhaps even to our streets? Isn't this a recipe for natural disaster?
It's not a hypothesis - its happened already in Arlington (USA): 100 homes in Arlington had to be evacuated as fracking fluid spilled out of a drilling site onto the city streets and Pennsylvania: Fracking linked to radioactive river water.
Then there is a risk that Methane can be released from those wells during the drilling process. The latest report, published by a group of 15 scientists, found that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is significantly underestimating the amount of methane released during natural gas production. Specifically, the report concludes that fugitive methane emissions could be 50% higher than EPA estimates (source). NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who published a study in 2009 in the journal Science that suggested that the interaction of methane with certain atmospheric aerosols might well amplify the global warming potential of methane, rendering it up to 105 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the 20-year time frame (source).
There is a lot of money in both Fracking and the Smart meter industry, indeed. Companies such as Guerilla, Arad and Siemens are sub-contracted to carry out the work and we have to remember where there is money, there are lobbyists. Still, Southern Water has no jurisdiction in bullying their customers into having this type of meter installed. Southern Water should also be firmly against fracking, which is the real threat to our scarce resource levels and will cause serious water stress and water contamination in the area!
These issues were addressed by the Green Party MEP for South East England Keith Taylor however Southern Water's statement on fracking remained the same:
'We recognise that there are potential opportunities to extract shale gas within our operational area and would not wish to hinder economic development in the region.'
We'd love to see someone investigate the 'true costs' incurred by the public:
- especially in health care costs associated with
- negative climate impact
- green house effects
- air and water pollution
- government tax incentives for the Smart Meter and Fracking industry
- costs to municipal water systems competing for the water used for fracking
- effects on the flora and fauna from increased pollution and destroyed habitats.
Anyone who is a systems thinker understands that any business that relies on the use of such vast tracks of land and water, on the surface and underneath the surface of the Earth, is a highly suspect business. The costs, we'd bet, out way the benefits for the public.
The fact that both industries have millions to spend on assuring they are protecting the health and welfare of the communities they do business in, is again suspect. Let's push for higher transparency and progress towards renewable resources, and the consumption of renewable energy to heat our homes, cook our food, and travel. Let’s educate others to be able to connect the dots and let’s protect the environment, which doesn't belong to governments or corporations, but to all human beings on this planet.
What can we do to prevent it: It is our human right to have clean drinking water, therefore we should declare a public health emergency and demand a moratorium on the unprecedented water wasting on fracking and involuntary radiation exposures caused by Intelligent or Smart Meters! These two issues are closely related as we described above.
- Share this message with others, who are dissatisfied with the abusive and extortive practices of such companies and let others know about the negative effects of microwave radiation.
- Partner with neighbours, colleagues, friends, non-profit organisations and create communities in order to raise awareness and people involved in ending a corporate dictatorship over our civil rights and liberties.
- Speak / write to your local MP, contact BBC Watchdog and Local Newspapers.
We need to create pressure on our water supplier, if we do not want to be zapped by high pulse RF radiation every 12 seconds for the rest of our lives. We need to demand that this project is abolished. Civil disobedience and not giving the consent and right to access our properties including our bank accounts (cancelling direct debits and setting up standing orders may be necessary and the payment then has to be done four days before the actual date of payment according to Southern Water website!)
We need to exercise our human rights.
Southern Water will (after you cancel direct debit) send you yet another threatening letter informing you that the whole balance of your account is due for immediate payment and they will include the bank giro slip as well. Truth is that this is again just a pressure tactic and not based on truth at all. Southern Water fails to follow their own guidelines, which clearly state that your account needs to be paid in full ONLY if we miss a payment. Are they yet again caught up lying and threatening their customers? Simple answer is: Yes! However you need to request standing order details, and tell them when you'll make the payment after cancelling direct debit (here's the link) and their phone number: +443303030277.
Then make sure that you make the payment on time, and this way you will not be overcharged and will therefore have peace of mind that you are paying no more than is necessary for your water usage. You give them 'no access to charge you extra' and they'd have to take you to court in order to get the 'no access charge' applied to your account, which we would welcome because we made them aware of public opposition due to health concerns. We did not consent to AMR/Smart meter but we explicitly requested an analogue meter for the purpose of water metering, which means that 'no access' can't be applied because it did not happen, in other words we gave access for meter installation (but requested a non RF emitting meter).
What to do if Southern Water or another utility company already installed an AMR Smart meter: If the water company already installed an AMR meter, then ask them to replace it with analogue meter (supply them with links about health risks so they can't tell that they were not informed). If they will not comply with your request than I'd suggest you to get in touch with us. We are currently raising awareness about this issue in order to reach critical mass needed to challenge our legal system with this case. Subscribe to Stop Electro Smog and we will keep you updated!
Most common lies of utility industry:
“There is a law coming into place in 2020 that will force you to have an AMR/Smart Meter”
“AMR meters are not Smart meters and they don’t emit microwaves”
” Our meters are safer than mobile phones"
"AMR and Smart meters emit RF frequency, which is perfectly safe"
“Smart Meters save 10% on your energy bill”
“Smart Meters are free and you won't need to pay a penny for them”
“Smart Meters do emit microwaves, but less than mobile phones”
"AMR meters emit only 0.01 micro watts/cm2"
"Smart meters only emit radiation when communicating with the drive by vehicle"
These statements are false. The signal is much higher than they dare to admit and the signal is sent at least every 12 seconds from each meter and this is not safe. Can you imagine your child playing next to a cupboard full of meters or drawing on the pavement 10cm next to an AMR meter? Can you imagine the exposure levels for people living in a block of flats, where everyone has to have a meter?
AMR meters are actually considered to be the worst kind of meters because they broadcast at full power constantly, which in many cases can emit even more RF radiation than you get from Laptops or Mobile phones as the comparison video shows.
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Southern Water will try to play it on technicalities and claim that an AMR meter is not actually a Smart meter because it only allows one way wireless communication.
Smart meters have a bad reputation and this is just an attempt to avoid it to be called a smart meter so they call it AMR or Intelligent meter (to prove our point the Southern Water representatives call their meter a Smart meter in our communique). They all are RF emitting devices. To simplify this would be like saying that a motorbike is not emitting CO2 emissions because it can't go backwards due to a missing reverse gear.
In March 2012, Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy’s research warned that ‘Smart’ Meters used for the purpose of metering water usage, can severely reduce water quality, leading to increased toxicity of poisons present in the body. This is happening by direct exposure and phenomena affecting the blood brain barrier and also by the presence of electromagnetism in the meter itself. Electromagnetically-conditioned water flow can strip lead and copper from pipes, leading to an increase in toxin intake into the body and the food chain. This is particularly concerning for areas like London, where there are still lead pipes in use.
They say the it'll only be 0.01 microwatt/cm2.
This is a lie based on pulsed being "time averaged" instead of providing peak powers. Even the ICNIRP institute, which standards are used in the UK do not recommend time averaging the signal in their guidelines: 'Time averaging ICNIRP recommends that the restrictions on internal electric fields induced by electric or magnetic fields including transient or very short-term peak fields be regarded as instantaneous values which should not be time averaged!' (Source: ICNIRP GUIDELINES, page 285). Most pulsed fields are much more biologically active than non-pulsed fields. The very low frequency fields are not picked by our body's "immune mechanisms" as microwave frequency, expert Barrie Trower describes in his interview (please visit our links section).
Southern Water is misguiding and misleading us, true the lies and deception. We have contacted various manufacturers including the ARAD representative for Europe (who is supplying Southern Water with meters), then a manufacturer of the same meters for the US market, and they all confirmed that the radio transmitters used in the meters are more than thousand times stronger, the transmitters used are able to emit radiation from 1 to 4 Watts (1 million to 4 million microwatts).
The Bioinitiative group recommends 0.01 microwatts/cm2 (peak values and not time averaged values!!!), ICNIRPs allows 1,000 microwatts / cm2 and WHO 450 microwatts / cm2. To put these numbers in perspective 1 watt is 1,000,000 micro watts (0.01 micro watts/cm2 = 0.0001 watt/m2). Dr. Martin Pall, Phd. has identified the mechanism of how non-ionising electromagnetic radiation harms biological beings - including all animals and plants (very important scientific research, source).
Averaging the exposure is basically like averaging the speed of a car's speed at the parking lot with it's speed on the motorway. The speed the driver was parking is irrelevant to the damage he's done when hitting another vehicle at high speed. Nobody would average these two speeds in a real life situation, but Southern Water effectively do. This is nothing but marketing and advertising trickery.
Imagine millions of AMR/Smart meters being installed across Britain. They will expose everyone within a 500 metre radius to their RF radiation. This would mean that we'll be receiving radiation from potentially thousands of meters at the same time. This will mean far greater population exposure and potential health consequences.
The risks will multiplied by Gas and Electricity suppliers following the same model. We are already being bombarded by wi-fi signals from our neighbours from left, right and centre. Nobody can predict the long term exposure from damages these signals can cause when the whole neighbourhood is going to form a grid consisting of water, gas and electricity meters emitting those frequencies all day, 356 days a year.
The problem is that people can be educated to switch off their mobile phones and wi-fi routers (or have them hard wired), but it's not an option with any kind of smart meter. People are reporting plants dying close to those meters, bee colonies are disappearing and birds leaving and not returning because they cannot adapt to the sudden high peaks in radiation. TV and radio radio wavelengths are smoother (without spikes in signal) and they appear more like the electromagnetic wavelengths of the planet. These short bursts are creating bioenergetic havoc in nature as well as in our bodies.
We have the right to protect our health in a free society. Please watch and share the videos below to get an opinion of a doctor, news and two consumers on the topic of Smart and AMR meters. The effects of RF and EMR frequencies are so serious that EU Watchdog calls for URGENT action against this type of radiation!
"It's not uncommon in science for people to break down in two opposing camps and it often takes quite a while before those barriers break down, but what is different about this in my judgement is that there are SO MANY published studies each of which falsify the current safety standards and you have these people ignoring all of them. Thousands of studies. It's just incredible!"
Professor Martin Pall
"There is suggestive evidence of harm by radio frequencies..we need to lower the standards otherwise the industry is not going to change things. The standards that we have are not justifiable..setting standards that inform people that caution is important that is essential and should be done as soon as possible..the standards could be lowered, if the public demanded for the protection of their health that the exposures are reduced. Our elected representatives are too influenced by the funds that come to then from the industry and we all suffer as a result of that "
Dr. David O. Carpenter.
Enough for filing a complaint? Here is the link for Consumer Council for Water, which offers a free and independent resolution scheme which is designed to help to customers who have issues with their suppliers. Here is also a link for the Advertising Standard Authority in case you also feel that the smart meters are falsely advertised.
It'll only get worse if we won't act. We need to be able to break out from the pattern of ever growing non-ionising radiation exposure before it's too late.
Smart meters have a bad reputation and this is just an attempt to avoid it to be called a smart meter so they call it AMR or Intelligent meter (to prove our point the Southern Water representatives call their meter a Smart meter in our communique). They all are RF emitting devices. To simplify this would be like saying that a motorbike is not emitting CO2 emissions because it can't go backwards due to a missing reverse gear.
In March 2012, Dr. Andrew Goldsworthy’s research warned that ‘Smart’ Meters used for the purpose of metering water usage, can severely reduce water quality, leading to increased toxicity of poisons present in the body. This is happening by direct exposure and phenomena affecting the blood brain barrier and also by the presence of electromagnetism in the meter itself. Electromagnetically-conditioned water flow can strip lead and copper from pipes, leading to an increase in toxin intake into the body and the food chain. This is particularly concerning for areas like London, where there are still lead pipes in use.
They say the it'll only be 0.01 microwatt/cm2.
This is a lie based on pulsed being "time averaged" instead of providing peak powers. Even the ICNIRP institute, which standards are used in the UK do not recommend time averaging the signal in their guidelines: 'Time averaging ICNIRP recommends that the restrictions on internal electric fields induced by electric or magnetic fields including transient or very short-term peak fields be regarded as instantaneous values which should not be time averaged!' (Source: ICNIRP GUIDELINES, page 285). Most pulsed fields are much more biologically active than non-pulsed fields. The very low frequency fields are not picked by our body's "immune mechanisms" as microwave frequency, expert Barrie Trower describes in his interview (please visit our links section).
Southern Water is misguiding and misleading us, true the lies and deception. We have contacted various manufacturers including the ARAD representative for Europe (who is supplying Southern Water with meters), then a manufacturer of the same meters for the US market, and they all confirmed that the radio transmitters used in the meters are more than thousand times stronger, the transmitters used are able to emit radiation from 1 to 4 Watts (1 million to 4 million microwatts).
The Bioinitiative group recommends 0.01 microwatts/cm2 (peak values and not time averaged values!!!), ICNIRPs allows 1,000 microwatts / cm2 and WHO 450 microwatts / cm2. To put these numbers in perspective 1 watt is 1,000,000 micro watts (0.01 micro watts/cm2 = 0.0001 watt/m2). Dr. Martin Pall, Phd. has identified the mechanism of how non-ionising electromagnetic radiation harms biological beings - including all animals and plants (very important scientific research, source).
Averaging the exposure is basically like averaging the speed of a car's speed at the parking lot with it's speed on the motorway. The speed the driver was parking is irrelevant to the damage he's done when hitting another vehicle at high speed. Nobody would average these two speeds in a real life situation, but Southern Water effectively do. This is nothing but marketing and advertising trickery.
Imagine millions of AMR/Smart meters being installed across Britain. They will expose everyone within a 500 metre radius to their RF radiation. This would mean that we'll be receiving radiation from potentially thousands of meters at the same time. This will mean far greater population exposure and potential health consequences.
The risks will multiplied by Gas and Electricity suppliers following the same model. We are already being bombarded by wi-fi signals from our neighbours from left, right and centre. Nobody can predict the long term exposure from damages these signals can cause when the whole neighbourhood is going to form a grid consisting of water, gas and electricity meters emitting those frequencies all day, 356 days a year.
The problem is that people can be educated to switch off their mobile phones and wi-fi routers (or have them hard wired), but it's not an option with any kind of smart meter. People are reporting plants dying close to those meters, bee colonies are disappearing and birds leaving and not returning because they cannot adapt to the sudden high peaks in radiation. TV and radio radio wavelengths are smoother (without spikes in signal) and they appear more like the electromagnetic wavelengths of the planet. These short bursts are creating bioenergetic havoc in nature as well as in our bodies.
We have the right to protect our health in a free society. Please watch and share the videos below to get an opinion of a doctor, news and two consumers on the topic of Smart and AMR meters. The effects of RF and EMR frequencies are so serious that EU Watchdog calls for URGENT action against this type of radiation!
"It's not uncommon in science for people to break down in two opposing camps and it often takes quite a while before those barriers break down, but what is different about this in my judgement is that there are SO MANY published studies each of which falsify the current safety standards and you have these people ignoring all of them. Thousands of studies. It's just incredible!"
Professor Martin Pall
"There is suggestive evidence of harm by radio frequencies..we need to lower the standards otherwise the industry is not going to change things. The standards that we have are not justifiable..setting standards that inform people that caution is important that is essential and should be done as soon as possible..the standards could be lowered, if the public demanded for the protection of their health that the exposures are reduced. Our elected representatives are too influenced by the funds that come to then from the industry and we all suffer as a result of that "
Dr. David O. Carpenter.
Enough for filing a complaint? Here is the link for Consumer Council for Water, which offers a free and independent resolution scheme which is designed to help to customers who have issues with their suppliers. Here is also a link for the Advertising Standard Authority in case you also feel that the smart meters are falsely advertised.
It'll only get worse if we won't act. We need to be able to break out from the pattern of ever growing non-ionising radiation exposure before it's too late.
- A Formal letter to your MP can be found in our petitions section.
- Flyers can be delivered to your doorstep, just email us your address - [email protected].
Complaint Letter:
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Leaflet:
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