Smart Water Meters Are Dangerous!

Smart water meters are very dangerous. Westland is just beginning to install them. Read our page on smart water meters. Start working with your city council now to stop them or get rid of them or get an opt-out.

Michigan Smart Meter Education Network, DTE, Consumers Energy

Do NOT Take Any DTE Surveys

DTE might send you a survey via email. Do not take it. 

1. They know if you opened it.
2. It's to determine whether or not you are going to be a "hard case."
3. Despite what the email says, DTE does in fact know whether you opened it and what you said. How do we know this. We asked the survey company. So much for "privacy"!

What do they ask you about? Nothing really. They tell you you have to accept the AMI (smart) gas meter. They ask you what will get you to accept it.

Here's the survey:
Thank you for being a valued DTE Energy customer. Your feedback is very important to us as we strive to improve your customer experience. We invite you to provide your opinion about your recent experience with DTE Energy.

Market Strategies International, an independent public opinion research company headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, has been contracted by DTE Energy to administer this survey. This survey is strictly for research purposes and is not connected with sales in any way. Your individual responses will remain confidential and will be combined with the responses of other customers for analysis purposes.

Thank you for your time. Your feedback is key to evaluating and improving DTE Energy's performance.

The survey should take about 10 minutes to complete. Please click the following link to participate in the study: 
 .....
Market Strategies International is committed to protecting your privacy.

DTE Acts Illegally in Shutting Off Power to People with Locked Meters

Wednesday, March 18, 2015. A three-vehicle convoy from DTE drove to five homes in widely disparate locations—Ann Arbor, Dexter, and Webster Township—and shut off their electricity. DTE justified their action by saying that the locking devices on the meters created a health and safety hazard for the homeowners and their neighbors.

DTE's action is illegal. It is an illegitimate use of the public safety exception found in MPSC Rule 460.136. A locked analog meter is not a public safety hazard. It won’t cause a fire. It won’t irradiate you. It won’t fill your home with dirty electricity.
 

Molly Cleary is a nurse and her husband a surgeon at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor. They locked their meter with a Tatar Guard because Molly is very concerned about the potential effects of the meter on their family’s health. 

The Clearys had been away on vacation for the last two weeks. They arrived home on Sunday to lots of mail and busy work schedules. Molly opened her mail on Tuesday, and saw the letter from DTE we mentioned above. The next morning, she and a group of women were at her house for a sewing lesson when the power suddenly went out. She went outside to find a five-vehicle crew from DTE cutting off the power to her home at the pole. The crew includes Nikki Willinger, a DTE Security Supervisor. who accompanies DTE crews when they shut off power.


Molly requested that DTE not shut off her power, asked why she couldn’t keep her analog. They told her they’d lose their jobs if they didn’t cut off her power. What a bunch of baloney! They all have cell phones and could easily have called Joe McCormick, head of the AMI Department. Molly called the Smart Meter Education Network, then called Channel 7 news. Her story was shown Wednesday night on the 11 o’clock news. An hour after Molly called me, another member of the Smart Meter Education Network called to say that DTE had shut off his power. DTE proceeded to cut power to the other two families.

Molly was proactive! Her story appeared on Channel 7 news. Let’s make the most of it. Get on the phone to your legislators. Call the news outlets. Ask them to do stories on the other people who had their power cut. Right now, the public sees just a single individual. We want all the stories out there, especially the one of the mother whose son has to take insulin. That insulin has to be kept in the refrigerator. What’s she supposed to do?
 
Meanwhile, DTE cut power to another Ann Arbor home. The man's daughter came home at 4 p.m. to find the power out and all of her tropical fish dead. 

DTE, of course, “remains confident in the safety of its metering equipment” and does not consider the damage to health, appliances, and wiring caused by smart meters, nor the fires they have started, to be a health and safety hazard!

DTE Not Turning Off Transmitters on All Opt-Out Meters

We already have one definitive report that DTE does not turn off the radio-transmitter on all its opt-out meters. This meter continued to transmit, even after DTE came out, supposedly turned it off, and put a "Radio-Off" sticker on the meter. The homeowner measured the transmissions with a highly sensitive RF meter, and it was pulsing constantly, just as much as the neighbors' smart meters.

We just received a second report via Facebook: "Wanted to share my most recent experience. As you may remember, DTE replaced our meter last month against our wishes. I called and arranged for someone to come out this afternoon to remove the transmitter, which required me to take time off work. They were to arrive between 12:00 and 4:30. Imagine my surprise when I arrived home at 11:55 to find that they had already come and gone. Even more concerning, there was a dusting of snow on the ground, showing footprints that walked into my backyard, looked into my doorwall and walked back out of my yard...after putting a "transmitter off" label on my meter. Those footprints did not stop in front of the meter. They did not even face the meter, so it's obvious that a label was simply slapped on as he walked past. I am now concerned that the transmitter was not removed at all. If you got stuck with a meter, and you requested that the transmitter be removed, PLEASE take the ENTIRE day off so that you can be there to actually SEE if it was removed. That was why I took time off from work - to actually watch them remove the transmitter. Now, I'm in limbo, and it's a horrible place to be."