WASHINGTON-The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has asked the Federal Communications Commission to perform an environmental impact statement on the effect of wireless towers on migratory birds.
“We are simply asking the question. We are flying blind … because we really don’t know the impact” of towers on migratory birds, said Dr. Benjamin N. Tuggle, chief of the FWS’ division of habitat conservation.
The fish and wildlife service sent the letter requesting the environmental impact statement Nov. 2, but has yet to receive a response from the FCC.
We sent the letter “in order for us to consult with the FCC to provide protection for the migratory birds and the FCC. It is in the best interest of the FCC to get in contact with us,” Tuggle said.
The FCC is drafting a response, an agency official said.
The FWS says it is concerned that FCC regulations regarding what actions must be taken to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act are too lax.
“Current FCC policy places on licensees the responsibility of deciding which of their actions require the submission of environmental information. It is our understanding that the licensees routinely pass this requirement on to the contractors building the towers, with almost no environmental oversight by FCC. Because of this interpretation of the intent of NEPA and the limited participation by FCC in the NEPA documentation process, substantial losses of migratory birds are not being accounted for in FCC’s permit and NEPA decision-making process,” said FWS Director Jamie Rappaport Clark in the letter.
Tower operators are apt to be concerned with the prospect of an environmental impact statement, but Tuggle said there is nothing to worry about.
“We cannot get an idea of impact until we do an assessment,” Tuggle said.
Those concerned about whether towers are being unjustly targeted note that 100 million birds have been killed by flying into buildings.
Tuggle said this was a typical response, adding that no extraordinary regulatory initiatives were planned and that a pending impact statement would not mean a moratorium on towers.
People concerned about whether birds would be killed by flying into a wireless tower spoke against issuing permits to Bell Atlantic Mobile to construct two towers in Rock Creek Park, an urban Washington, D.C., park. After almost five years of bureaucratic wrangling, the permits were issued in November.
