A group of Summerlanders opposed to a cellular telephone tower on Little Conkle Mountain are preparing to take their complaint to court.

Vicki Lightfoot, one of the members of Summerland Citizens Opposed to Radiofrequency Emissions, said the group has paid a retainer to a lawyer.

She said the group is now working to establish health bylaws and consultation bylaws for future cellular tower proposals.

She is worried about the health effects of a cellular tower and increasing risks if the tower is used to house additional transmitters in the future.

“Once the tower’s in place, they don’t have to have approval to put up more transmitters,” she said. “Once they’ve got it, there’s no stopping them.”

Representatives from Telus have repeatedly said the tower is safe and emissions fall well within the limits set by Health Canada.

Shawn Hall, a Telus spokesperson, earlier said when completed, the $750,000 tower will produce emissions 1,600 times lower than allowed by Health Canada.

But Lightfoot and others in the citizens’ group are concerned with what they believe is a lack of regulations on the part of Health Canada.

“Health Canada is failing us,” she said. “Because the regulatory body isn’t doing its job, it has to go through the courts.”

Hall said the tower site was chosen in order to provide the best possible service to the community. At present, cellular reception is not available in all parts of the community. Hall said another location would not offer the same coverage as the Little Conkle Mountain site.

Members of the citizens’ group believe the tower is too close to neighbouring homes.

Lightfoot said the minimum safe distance from a cellular tower is 400 metres, if the tower uses 3G technology. She said some of the houses around the tower site are closer.

If the tower is used for more powerful transmissions, the safe distance would be much further — as much as four kilometres in the case of FM radio transmissions.

Lightfoot would like to see a similar distance in place for cell towers using the new 4G technology, since she said the signals can travel up to 50 kilometres.

“In the long term. we need monitoring of these towers,” she said. “We need to establish a safe limit. Health Canada’s standard is outdated.”

The citizens’ group is looking for donations to help pay its legal costs.

The lawyer has asked for $5,000 to start and has told them it will cost up to $20,000 to apply for an injunction to stop the tower construction.

If the case goes through the court process, the costs will escalate significantly.

A fundraiser is in the works for early October.