By Mike Gervais
Register Staff

11-10-2007

When 911 systems go down it causes major problems for law enforcement, firefighters and, most importantly, residents in need of aid. That’s why the Eastern Sierra Council of Governments (ESCOG) is petitioning two local assemblymen and two senators to put some pressure on a phone company that has thus far refused to eliminate the possibility of such a failure.

The ESCOG, which includes the City of Bishop, Inyo County, Mono County and the Town of Mammoth Lakes, recently drafted a letter to be sent to Senator Dave Cox, Senator Roy Ashburn, Assemblyman Tom Berryhill and Assemblyman Bill Maze outlining the problems with the current phone system running through the Eastern Sierra.
The letter intends to prompt the state government to get involved and help convince Verizon to complete an eight-mile stretch of phone line that would make cutting off communications to the Eastern Sierra (which happens every couple years) virtually impossible, or, at least less likely.
“It’s a pretty significant impact” on the welfare and economies of communities in the Eastern Sierra when the phone lines go down, said District 2 Mono County Supervisor Hap Hazard.

When the main phone line serving the Eastern Sierra is cut, citizens are not only left without the use of telephones until it is repaired, but also ATMs (as was the case above in 2004), credit card machines and the Internet. Local leaders say a looped line would prevent future outages. Photo by Jon Klusmire

Hazard is referring to several instances in the last 12 years when, for one reason or another, the phone line running from Barstow throughthe Owens Valley to State Route 168 was severed or broken, causing the entire Inyo-Mono region to lose Internet access, phone service, ATM service and sometimes even cell phone service.
Despite all those inconveniences, the most important loss is the 911 systems in Inyo and Mono counties which leaves residents virtually stranded in emergency situations.
“This failure to complete the looped system results in the Eastern Sierras (sic) losing all 911 communications into our dispatch centers by phone line if service is interrupted from the deserts of Barstow north,” the draft letter to Ashburn, Maze, Berryhill and Cox states.
Any point north of a break in the phone line will lose such power, unless new phone lines are installed near S.R. 168, connecting the Eastern Sierra lines with a different circuit in Coleville in northern Mono County, which has phone lines linked to Nevada and Northern California.
By completing that “looped” phone system, if there is a break in any telephone lines the system can be re-routed, protecting services. “Phone systems typically connect in multiple locations” to prevent such outages, “ours doesn’t,” Hazard said. “If you have a dead end in the phone system like we have, when you get a cut, there is no way to maintain the system.”
According to the letter, “This has happened on a fairly regular basis over the past 12-15 years, averaging about every 18-24 months and the loss of service has lasted from 1-5 days.”
During that time, residents and visitors vacationing in the area are unable to pull cash from ATM machines, use debit cards to pay for hotel rooms and meals and are unable to communicate via telephone.
Another major issue with the flawed phone service comes from the U.S. Geological Survey in the area, which would not be able to transmit information regarding earthquakes and seismic activity while the phone lines are down, Hazard explained.
“Our businesses also lose because their computer systems that are linked to outside terminals fail, credit card billing systems fail and e-mail communications systems are impacted,” the letter states. “We are also aware that the Marine Base suffers from this lack of service.”
Local law enforcement agencies “can communicate with ourselves” via radio, Hazard said, “but it causes a problem for the public.”
According to the letter, only eight miles of phone line are preventing Inyo and Mono counties from having a looped system with existing phone service near the State line of Nevada.
“We’ve spent a little more than a decade with the Sheriff’s Department working with the Public Utility Commission to have this resolved,” Hazard said. However the Public Utility Commission and Verizon have remained dormant on the subject.
“We have been told by Verizon, ‘This is an issue of economics;’ we simply don’t have the population to justify the expense of completing the last eight miles of the system,” the letter states.
The ESCOG has developed two viable options for completing the phone system. The first would run eight miles of new phone line through a canyon of hard rock into Coleville.
The second will include about four more miles of phone line, however it will run along Burcham Flat Road. “The terrain there is a little more forgiving, and it may be cheaper in the long run” to lay the four extra miles of phone line, Hazard said.
Both those options have been presented to Verizon, but it has thus far refused to complete the system.
“Our request of you,” the draft letter states, “is to join efforts in your offices as our elected State Representatives and conduct your own investigation into the causes and solutions of this communications failure. We believe that jointly we can be successful in having Verizon remedy the problem.
“We see this issue as one of public safety, economic well being and protection, as well as homeland security. Further, we believe that our citizens pay monthly on their phone bills for reliable phone and 911 services, and they should receive that service,” states the letter.