Two facilities located in West Virginia require a strict limit on radio frequency interference – the National Security Agency’s Sugar Grove Research Station in Pendleton County and the Green Bank Observatory in Pocahontas County.
But for decades – as communication systems have become more advanced – those limits have made it increasingly difficult for emergency crews and first responders in those two counties to do their jobs as safely and effectively as possible.
The results of a lengthy new federal study show exactly how precarious the situation is.
Maria Young caught up with Pendleton County Emergency Management’s Rick Gillespie to find out what the study shows and what happens next.
The following has been edited for clarity and length.
Young: Would you start by explaining what the National Radio Quiet Zone is? What does that mean and how does that impact the Pendleton County Emergency Management Team?
Gillespie: The National Radio Quiet Zone was established in 1958 to shield two federally significant facilities that need to be free from radio frequency interference. Those facilities are one located here in Pendleton County at Sugar Grove and operated by the National Security Agency. And the other is the Green Bank Observatory operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory. And it’s located at Green Bank in Pocahontas County. And that brings the distinction for Pendleton and Pocahontas counties to be in the epicenter of the restrictions to radio frequency output brought to us by the quiet zone.
Young: I would assume that it’s pretty important both for the Green Bank Observatory and for the NSA to not have radio frequency interference. So what’s the solution then?
Gillespie: Well, that’s correct. And that’s the question and acknowledgement that we’ve been making for years that yes, those two facilities have extremely important missions. But getting lost in the weeds is the fact that our fire, EMS and police agencies throughout both counties in the region have equally important missions when it comes to saving lives. So our plea to the federal government was, we have to find a way to solve this. We can’t remain lost in the weeds.
Much to her credit, Senator [Shelley Moore] Capito heard our plea, and she specifically requested that the U.S. National Science Foundation and the National Security Agency commission this study. And so over the course of the past two years, this study has been ongoing. And in late August, the federal officials met with us and unveiled the contents of the study.
Young: And what did the results show you? I imagine it shows you some things that you already knew, but it confirms and puts into usable data those details. So what were the results?
Gillespie: That’s correct. The study confirmed what we’d been stating and gave it the legitimacy that the federal government needed to see. And we understand that.
But the study’s needs analysis revealed that Pendleton County’s existing public safety radio infrastructure is delivering only about 47% mobile coverage from the vehicles and 49% portable radio coverage from handheld radios countywide while in Pocahontas the study revealed that 71% mobile coverage exists and only 13% portable radio coverage.
And all of that compares to a nationwide standard that should be 95% or higher. So as you can see, our coverage is weak compared to the national standard and expectations.
Young: So what does that mean for emergency personnel out in the field in the middle of an emergency or a crisis or a critical circumstance of any kind?
Gillespie: It means they have to be prepared to do their jobs without one of the most important tools that modern emergency services organizations have at their availability, and that’s radio or cell phone communications or some form of communication.
A few years ago, a trooper was shot in Pocahontas County and communications was horrible in getting him help. So, whenever we get in these instances, I’ll transition to another real world instance, lost person in an area where there’s no communications.
One of the first things you have to do is you put the foot soldiers out, so to speak, searching for this person is put in a relay system with direct line of sight radio communications. So it ties up a lot of people.
Young: So what happens next at this point? Where do you go from here? It sounds like you have some recommendations.
Gillespie: Right. So the plan moving forward is to allow the federal government another few weeks to look at this and digest it and see exactly what they want to propose to do.
There’s not a date certain yet for the next meeting, but they feel that sometime between now and the end of the year that they should be able to come back to us with some offerings of more substance on a path ahead.
