2022-05-06 Motion to File Third Amended Complaint Against TRPA Requested of the Court

May 6, 2022 - Today Plaintiffs Monica Eisenstecken, David Benedict, Environmental Health Trust, Tahoe for Safe Tech and Tahoe Stewards filed a request to to the Court to file their Third Amended Complaint against the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA), Verizon, and other defendants. The Complaint requests that the Court stop the TRPA from approving blanket piecemeal permits to cover the Lake Tahoe Region with small cell facilities and macro cell towers. We contend that the TRPA is violating its own rules, as well as federal and state laws, and that certain TRPA Board members are under a clear conflict of interest due to their also being on the Board of the Tahoe Prosperity Center, a non-profit doing the bidding of promoting the wireless telecom’s agenda. The specific issue is a recently permitted 112-foot tall monopine macro tower in the middle of a residential neighborhood, part of an overall plan to cover the Region in cell towers, permitted piecemeal over many years. Recent discoveries of tons of fallen faux plastic “leaves” and “branches” that were attached to all the monopines to (unsuccessfully) disguise their ugly presence, has resulted in an illegal dumping of toxic “trash” onto the Tahoe lands, where the plastics quickly degrade into microplastics and eventually get flushed into the Lake. This widespread practice is illegal, as the Lake Tahoe Region is a Zero Discharge Zone according to various federal and state laws. We contend that the obvious solution is not to erect more wireless towers, but to provide the Region with optical fiber to the premises, with a minimum use of cell towers far away from where they can harm people and the environment, for minimal but sufficient wireless coverage for mobile users.