submitted by Citizen’s of Ebey’s Reserve
The Navy’s decision to delay its release of a Draft Environmental Impact Statement on Whidbey Island naval Air Station’s controversial ‘Growler’ fighter jet operations is being greeted with criticism and suspicion by citizen groups.
The Navy is making a mockery of the National Environmental Policy Act and is again using legal-slight-of-hand to violate its intent and undermine the protections it was meant to provide, said Ken Pickard President of Citizen’s of Ebey’s Reserve.
Growler EA-F18 fighter jets operating out of Whidbey Island Naval Air Station are the loudest jets ever to fly and the source of noise complaints from throughout the Puget Sound. Health professionals have attributed levels of hazardous noise from the jets to a host of health problems. The noise assault on Central Whidbey has been described by one expert as a, “public health emergency.”
The National Environmental Policy Act requires that the potential impacts of such actions be thoroughly studied and that information in those studies be made public for review and comment before a final decision. The law also assures the public’s right to participate in the NEPA process by having input into what is studied and the opportunity to comment of a draft of the study results.
“The Navy’s Growler on-going saturation of homes, parks, and places of business with hazardous noise before it has fully assessed the potential harms to people and the environment is exactly what NEPA was designed to prevent,” said Pickard. “The Navy wants to put the cart before the horse by studying harms while they continue to assault communities with toxic noise,” he added. The Navy has NEVER completed an Environmental Impact Statement for any of its’ operations at Navy Station Whidbey despite NEPA being law since 1970.
It is when this Draft Environmental Impact Statement is made public that citizens know whether or not potentially harmful impacts were seriously considered. “The Navy’s delay in releasing a Draft EIS has allowed it to conceal the fact that its studies, involving noise and human health, are inadequate and flawed by design, said Pickard.
The Navy had assured the crowds of citizens who attended the required public ‘scoping” meetings, that sucth impacts would be thoroughly assessed. However, a March 29 Navy response to a COER Freedom of Information Act Request reveals that the Navy did not conduct any noise measuring, modeling, or analysis in Central Whidbey in 2014 or 2015. Citizens have long complained about the harmful jet noise and repeatedly asked for the issue to be thoroughly studied.
The Navy’s April 5 announcement that the Draft EIS delay followed COER’s recent request to meet with the Whidbey Naval Air Station’s Commander to discuss concerns about noise impacts. The Navy has yet to respond.
Citizen groups on Whidbey Island and the Olympic Peninsula, accused the Navy of NEPA violations in its bulldozing ahead with harmful operations, including electronic warfare training over the Olympic National Forest.
For more information about Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, refer to the website at
http://citizensofebeysreserve.com.
