{"id":3558,"date":"2011-08-31T08:51:56","date_gmt":"2011-08-31T15:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=3558"},"modified":"2011-09-06T08:56:09","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T15:56:09","slug":"not-a-ringing-endorsement-for-water-meters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=3558","title":{"rendered":"Not a ringing endorsement for water meters"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeremy Deutsch – Kamloops This Week<\/p>\n

Published: August 31, 2011 7:00 PM
\nTrudy Frisk loves her home.<\/p>\n

Correction. Trudy Frisk once loved her home.<\/p>\n

The longtime Kamloops resident was the queen of her Dallas Drive castle.<\/p>\n

“It’s a lovely neighbourhood,” she told KTW of the neighbourhood she has called home for 27 years.<\/p>\n

But, earlier this summer, Frisk’s quiet home life came to a piercing end.<\/p>\n

She believes it all has to do with the installation of a water meter.<\/p>\n

On July 7, Frisk had a water meter installed inside her home, like the more than 1,500 homeowners in Dallas, Barnhartvale and Juniper Ridge neighbourhoods who have also done the same under the city’s universal water-metering program.<\/p>\n

Later that day, her ears began to ring and she felt a prickly sensation all over her body.<\/p>\n

Frisk described the feeling as like standing under a high-voltage transmission tower.<\/p>\n

“It was really weird,” she said.<\/p>\n

That night, Frisk hardly slept and, when she awoke the next morning, the ringing in her ears continued.<\/p>\n

However, the strange symptoms seemed to disappear when she went to work, only to return when she got home.<\/p>\n

Frisk thought perhaps the meter weren’t grounded, so she called the city to check it out, while at the same time dropping by her audiologist to get her ears checked.<\/p>\n

Her hearing was fine and so was the meter, yet there was still no improvement in her condition.<\/p>\n

“It was intolerable,” she said.<\/p>\n

Frisk then visited her doctor, who suggested it could be the meter could be behind her malady.<\/p>\n

Each meter is outfitted with a radio-frequency transmitter that reads the unit remotely.<\/p>\n

Her doctor surmised she could be suffering from a negative reaction to the frequency.<\/p>\n

Armed with the information, she called the city for options.<\/p>\n

Frisk could have Neptune Technology, the company installing the water meters, remove the transmitter and replace it with a wired dial outside the home.<\/p>\n

The dial would have to be physically read once every three months for an extra $25 per quarter.<\/p>\n

Her other option was to put the meter in a pit in her lawn for $1,000.<\/p>\n

Frisk chose the wired route \u2014 she’d gladly pay the extra $100 to stop the pain.<\/p>\n

It didn’t work.<\/p>\n

The ringing didn’t stop.<\/p>\n

Undeterred, she asked the city to then have the meter placed in a pit.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 14, the meter was removed and banished to a hole.<\/p>\n

“This is not how I wanted to spend my summer, believe me,” Frisk said<\/p>\n

The bewildered Kamloops resident thought the problem was solved, and she could return to her quiet life.<\/p>\n

But once again, the ringing returned.<\/p>\n

Frisk maintained the ringing is now constant \u2014 and spending time in her home is the last thing she wants to do.<\/p>\n

“It’s really difficult to live with that all the time,” she said.<\/p>\n

She’s been told by her doctor there is a small percentage of people who have recorded an intolerance to electromagnetic fields.<\/p>\n

With the frequency’s ability to travel and her surrounding neighbours all having the same water meters installed, Frisk has run out of options and is at a loss for answers.<\/p>\n

She doesn’t blame the city or Neptune, both of which, she said, have been very co-operative and helpful.<\/p>\n

“It’s nobody’s fault, like the way some people are allergic to peanuts,” Frisk said.<\/p>\n

However, she said if she knew there was an option to have the transmitter placed on the outside of her home, it would have been her first choice.<\/p>\n

David Duckworth, director of public works and sustainability, said the city is aware of Frisk’s dilemma, but contends it’s the only such case in Kamloops.<\/p>\n

He said a handful of residents have raised concerns about the health effects from the frequencies, but added he hasn’t heard of any confirmed health-related cases from any of Neptune’s water meters.<\/p>\n

The company has installed four-million devices across North America.<\/p>\n

“It’s very rare,” Duckworth said.<\/p>\n

Neptune sent a letter to the city in response to the concerns expressed by residents which can be read here.<\/p>\n

As for the choice to have a transmitter placed outside, Duckworth noted the brochure handed out to residents advises calling the city to learn about options.<\/p>\n

He noted only about 10 people have called so far.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bclocalnews.com\/bc_thompson_nicola\/kamloopsthisweek\/news\/128849973.html<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jeremy Deutsch – Kamloops This Week Published: August 31, 2011 7:00 PM Trudy Frisk loves her home. Correction. Trudy Frisk once loved her home. The longtime Kamloops resident was the queen of her Dallas Drive castle. “It’s a lovely neighbourhood,” she told KTW of the neighbourhood she has called home for 27 years. But, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55,104],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3558","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kamloops","category-water-meter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3558"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3563,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3558\/revisions\/3563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3558"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3558"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3558"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}