Livingston Approves Smart Water Meters with Opt-Out Program After Health Concerns

AGREEMENT 20172 WITH FERGUSON WATERWORKS FOR METERS

What Happened

The Livingston City Commission unanimously approved purchasing 250 new smart water meters while establishing an opt-out program for residents concerned about electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure. The May 20 decision came after heated public testimony about potential health risks from the wireless technology.

The city needs to replace aging water meters throughout the system, with the new "smart" meters automatically transmitting usage data to a central station rather than requiring manual readings by city staff driving to each location.

Why It Matters

The debate centered on health concerns versus municipal efficiency. Multiple residents testified about negative health effects they attributed to EMF exposure from similar devices.

Health Concerns Raised: Dr. Karen Stens, a naturopathic physician, warned commissioners: "The evidence for harm is clear and undeniable. Radio frequency signals like from a smart meter are shown to disrupt the voltage gated calcium channels that are in every single cell of our body... EMF has been shown to cause broad cellular damage resulting in neurologic dysfunction, immune system dysfunction, and cancer."

Kelly Bishop ( also known as Kelly Bonnell) shared personal experience from Las Vegas: "I am one of these people that when I have to be in Las Vegas [with smart meters], I am miserable. I am sick. I can't sleep... We have studies and family members that have had these smart meters outside their bedroom windows that have literally had heart defects." She emphasized the financial and health liability concerns: "You cannot tell me it's going to outweigh the cost of someone's health or life. You talk about your liability... your lawsuits against this city when people see what's going on here is not going to be pretty."

Jesse B. Lucero noted both health impacts and sleep disruption: "In regards to the EMF that these devices emit, it does disrupt your health. It does disrupt your sleep. In my situation, I couldn't sleep. I didn't realize that my head was against the wall next to the wall and there's a plug and just the voltage itself causes sleep disruptions."

Linda Mahr challenged the credibility of supporting studies, questioning a 2011 California Council on Science and Technology report: "The study that the California Council on Science and Technology did that you are quoting is from 2011. That's 14 years old. There is many many changes in technology since then." She noted the report was funded by tech industry figures including "Gordon and Betty Moore... CEO and co-founder of Intel, one of the largest chip manufacturers in the world, working closely with Bill Gates, also the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative."

Mahr also distinguished the new technology from existing meters: "There was a gentleman at that meeting who actually reads the meters and said that the meter reader that we have on our water meter now only emits a signal when he prompts from his truck. This new thing is going to be sending out signals on its own and can some of the information set as much as every 5 seconds."

Legal Gap in Montana Law Identified: Jesse B. Lucero exposed a significant weakness in Montana's consumer protection framework: "In Montana we currently have opt outs for both electric and gas, but we don't have it for water. And if we have advanced meters, I think it falls under the same category that it would fall under electrical as well."

Lucero's testimony revealed that Montana Code Annotated mandates opt-out programs for electric and gas smart meters but provides no such consumer protection for advanced water meters. This regulatory oversight leaves residents vulnerable to mandatory installation of wireless water meters with no legal recourse at the state level, despite the devices using similar radio frequency technology as their electric and gas counterparts.

City Manager's Technical Response: Grant Gager presented detailed data to address health concerns: "The meters themselves broadcast on average 1.2 seconds at a time... in normal operation, they would transmit out to the tower once every six hours... that equates to approximately 1.2 seconds of transmission for every 15,000 seconds of operation."

Gager explained the safety testing: "The company still had to demonstrate to the FCC that it was compliant with the maximum permissible exposure to certain transmission frequencies... it was determined that the distance from the center of the antenna where the peak radiation occurs would need to be 65 inches away from a person to expose them to the maximum level of permissible exposure. And the housing is actually 66 inches."

He also provided comparative exposure data: "A person standing three feet away from the smart meter is receiving one-tenth of the electromagnetic radiation that they would from a TV or radio or cell phone towers... they are receiving 1/67th of the RF exposure that they would from a Wi-Fi router."

What Can Be Done - City Manager's Solutions: When asked about addressing concerns, Gager outlined several options: "While an opt-out program is certainly possible, and I welcome direction from the city commission on whether they would like to institute an opt-out policy... the truth is that folks may simply be opting out to the current technology, which has relatively similar functionality in that it's transmitting to a remote base station."

He acknowledged the technology limitation: "For the city to continue the use of the existing technology is certainly feasible in the short term. But we do know that the manufacturer is bringing these units to the end of their life and they will be unsupported within 10 years. And so we would need to find another technological solution."

Alternative Perspective: RF engineer Bob Meechum offered technical expertise: "You're exposed to more radiation right now than what you think you are," but supported giving residents choice through an opt-out program with a practical suggestion: "I would recommend that you incorporate an opt-out system that allows people when you go to install these to opt out at this point in time... but then maybe put a requirement to when that house sells, the sale of that house would require an upgrade to a smart meter."

The Solution

The commission's unanimous decision addresses both operational needs and resident concerns by extending consumer choice protections to water meters:

Smart Meter Purchase Approved: The city will buy 250 new meters from Ferguson Waterworks to replace failing units as needed, maintaining system efficiency.

Consumer Choice Extended: Following the precedent established in Montana Code Annotated for electric and gas smart meters, residents can now choose to keep existing analog water meters. This creates the same opt-out protection for water customers that the state already guarantees for electric and gas customers, ensuring consistent consumer rights across all utility services.

Home Sale Provision: Following Bob Meechum's suggestion, meter upgrades would be required when homes are sold, preventing the city from maintaining dual systems indefinitely while still preserving individual choice.

Commissioner Carey Kale supported extending this consumer protection: "Some folks are more sensitive to things than others... they should have the ability to make those choices within their home."

What's Next

City Manager Gager will develop the formal opt-out program details and bring the policy back to the commission for approval. The program will mirror the consumer protections already established in Montana law for electric and gas smart meters, ensuring residents have the same choice for water service.

The meters will be installed as existing units fail or during other utility work, giving residents time to decide whether to participate in the opt-out program.

The decision extends existing Montana consumer protections to water customers, ensuring consistent choice across all utility services. By creating parity with state-mandated electric and gas opt-out programs, Livingston demonstrates that local governments can expand consumer protections and provide the same level of choice for all utility services.

This precedent could influence other Montana communities to extend similar consumer choice protections for water meters, creating statewide consistency in smart meter policies across all utility types.