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Redondo Beach Residents Address Stray Voltage Concerns With SoCal Edison
CBS) ^ | April 9, 2012 11:07 PM

Posted on 04/10/2012 8:09:48 AM PDT by BenLurkin

REDONDO BEACH (CBS) — Residents of Redondo Beach raised concerns during a meeting with Southern California Edison, claiming that a substation in their neighborhood is producing stray voltage and making people ill.

Emotions were heated during the three-hour public forum held by Redondo Beach city leaders.

“I don’t see my daughter, son; I don’t have a house anymore. This is far from fun and games,” a resident said.

“We have a newer house. There are older houses. Everybody has had issues,” a woman added.

“California may be the most integrative standards that there are, but they’re not doing what is right by the people. The only thing that California Edison is concerned about is their butts. That’s it,” another resident said.

Residents in the Knob Hill neighborhood, next to a Southern California Edison substation, which sends out electricity to the city, were armed with questions and concerns directed at representatives from Edison, The Gas Company, and the California Public Utilities Commission.

“There’s people getting sick and there’s people dying,” a woman said at the meeting.

Monday night the residents wanted their voices heard and demanded answers.

They believe that stray voltage from the substation and electromagnetic fields from the power lines, which surround homes, a school and a church, are making families sick. It’s a story that we first reported in February.

Back then we met the Barber family, who shared their medical ailments.

“I have a 14-month-old baby girl, who was just in the hospital last month,” Lori Barber said.

Edison said Monday that it is working with The Gas Company to resolve the issues.

“As you continually upgrade and remodel, the electrical usage in your neighborhoods is going to change, we need to conform accordingly,” the Edison representative said.

While experts we spoke with said there is cause for concerns, Edison said Monday that there was no scientific information that correlates with health issues or safety concerns.

“We need, for the magnetic fields and child leukemia, we need to pay attention to this and we need to do more research,” a man said.

The Knob Hill residents we talked with said that they left the meeting feeling very confused and still very worried. But they said that they would continue to fight and lobby.


TOPICS: Weird Stuff
KEYWORDS: strayvoltage
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To: BenLurkin

“There’s people getting sick and there’s people dying,” a woman said at the meeting.
Wouldn’t the cure be to move?,oh wait it’s california logic never in use.


21 posted on 04/10/2012 9:49:44 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Vaduz
“There’s people getting sick and there’s people dying,” a woman said at the meeting. Wouldn’t the cure be to move?,oh wait it’s california logic never in use.

Come to think of it, I do believe people have gotten sick and died everywhere I've ever lived across the US. Maybe she should try France.

22 posted on 04/10/2012 9:52:56 AM PDT by IamConservative (Shall I try and perhaps fail or shall I do nothing without fail?)
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To: IamConservative

Or away from high voltage lines,to easy an answer?.


23 posted on 04/10/2012 10:09:08 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: Hodar

I’m just the guy who designs the walls...no electrical expert here.

But I’ll try.

First of all, if I implied appliances shocked people, I didn’t mean to. Its usually something not grounded well...like the metal edging on a counter-top, or a door knob...these things have alot of insulator betwen them and the ground.

Then its something like a slow motion version of rubbing a ballon against your leg. Charged particles leave the station, and are attracted to conductive items in the house. I know that, interior to the substation, they are so worried about static charge building up on certain surfaces, that they have special grounding procedures, before touching them (even with all the juice turned off). I assume that it some sort of spillover from that.

Like I said, the solution is simply a wall...sometimes they get quite high. And the shock the residents get is just like what you get when you walk across a carpet, and touch something metal. Not deadly...but annoying enough that the power company has to fix it.

And, they do have a handheld meter, which somehow measures the quantity of charged particles floating around in the house.

Anyway, it doesn’t have much to do with grounding, other than the fact that many itms in the station are not grounded...and this static charge builds up.

As far as the ‘EM radiation is making my dog sick’ tales go, I remain skeptical of them. The EM radiation from this stuff is enormously high, right at the line or transformer...but quickly drops off to normal levels, just a few feet away.


24 posted on 04/10/2012 11:59:37 AM PDT by lacrew (Mr. Soetoro, we regret to inform you that your race card is over the credit limit.)
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To: lacrew

Thanks for the explanation ... I think I understand now.

More like a radiated static field that charges conductive things - as you mentioned. Irritating, not life threatening, but still something that would make your life a lot less pleasant than it could be. I’d hate to get zapped every time I touched a metal surface - it’s make me mad too.


25 posted on 04/10/2012 12:07:15 PM PDT by Hodar ( Who needs laws; when this FEELS so right?)
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To: BenLurkin

These folks should be mopping up all the spilled coulombs and selling them back to the power company.


26 posted on 04/10/2012 1:36:12 PM PDT by SoothingDave
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To: Hardraade

I suspect that a FMJ .308 through the battery would do just as well.


27 posted on 04/10/2012 7:35:04 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: Hardraade

I suspect that a FMJ .308 through the battery would do just as well.


28 posted on 04/10/2012 7:37:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: Hardraade

When we were kids one of the group threw a loop of baling wire into the air and it landed on top of a power pole transformer.

Hilarity endued.


29 posted on 04/10/2012 7:38:41 PM PDT by Rebelbase
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