Making Waves On Cougar Mt. -- Radio Towers Worry Residents

Monty Lennox and his Cougar Mountain neighbors have lived with some weird phenomena for a long time.

Phones that play radio tunes. Automatic garage doors that open and shut by themselves. Televisions that pick up no local TV stations at all - but occasionally broadcast in French.

The source is no mystery, Lennox says: it's radio waves that beam forth from the top of a Cougar Mountain antenna "farm" that broadcasts most of the area's FM radio stations.

But while the electronic interference is an obvious nuisance, Lennox fears invisible radiation that comes from the antenna farm is a more insidious health risk.

King County will consider an ordinance Monday that would set standards on the placement of broadcast towers and the amount of radiation, called "nonionizing," that antennas can generate.

Lennox and his wife, Joanne, who live in a home less than 1,000 feet from the nearest antenna, object to the ordinance. They believe the health issue has not been well-researched, and they want the county to set a stringent standard, erring on the side of caution.

On the Cougar Mountain farm, more than 100 such antennas for FM radio stations are mounted on 24 towers. Cougar Mountain's 1,500-foot height and unobstructed path to Seattle makes it ideal for broadcasters.

But not so ideal for the subdivisions springing up around it.

Cougar Mountain and Vashon Island residents persuaded the county several years ago to put a moratorium on new antennas at both sites. The moratorium expires July 31, and the county wants to pass its ordinance before that deadline, says Holly Kean, a senior policy analyst for King County.

Kean defends the county's proposed standard, saying it was recommended by a panel of experts assembled by the county, and has been endorsed by several national organizations.

The nonionizing radiation in question is measured in microwatts per centimeter squared, although experts don't agree on a safe level. The standard the county is considering adopting would allow readings as high as 200 microwatts per centimeter squared. Opponents like the Lennoxes are calling for 100 microwatts per centimeter squared.

Seattle also is considering adopting the 200-microwatt standard, but its ordinance is not coming up for a vote soon.

It's difficult to know how either standard would affect broadcasters.

Kean says she doesn't know if the Cougar Mountain site, the most concentrated source of nonionizing radiation in the county, now exceeds that standard. But Lennox says an Environmental Protection Agency measurement taken in 1985 showed radiation on Cougar Mountain exceeds that level, reaching nearly 1,000 microwatts per centimeter squared just outside the property line.

What concerns Fisher Broadcasting, owner of KOMO-AM radio and TV, is that the 100 microwatts standard could prevent the company from using future technologies. "It's like mortgaging your firstborn child," said Don Wilkinson, vice president/director of engineering for KOMO.

His company supports the 200-microwatt standard.

It's not only health questions that concern Cougar Mountain and Vashon residents. Vashon is fighting taller towers on the island, and both object to radio interference.

Weird stories abound: neon bulbs that light up when brought near the antennas, people who hear radio broadcasts in the fillings of their teeth, a metal fireplace grate that picks up radio signals.

Virtually every piece of electronic equipment in Sarah Haynes' Cougar Mountain home is protected by devices that block the radio waves. Still, walking across the carpet can turn the stereo on, Haynes says.

Haynes, who lives nearly a mile from the antenna farm, fears that radio-wave interference could interrupt a vital baby monitor, interfere with an emergency phone call or cause the failure of a device used by an elderly person to call for help if they fall or suffer a heart attack.