Since I couldn’t find this easily I called the Navy. Here’s the mailing address if you need it. The key issue as I see it is that they are considering using Admiralty Inlet and a bit of the Straits to expand their Chinook Helicopter training. Flight paths as low as 300′ extend over Fort Worden and North Beach, according to the maps. Check it out at their web site.
http://www.nwtrangecomplexeis.com/Documents.aspx
Letters to: NAVFAC NW – Attn: Kimberly Klear 1101 Tautog Circle – Ste: 203 Silverdale 98315
Filed under: Government |
I am completely opposed to the expansion of the Navy’s underwater testing in national waters. This initiative originated during the Bush administration and should certainly have been reevaluated under the new administration. No compelling justification has been given for the enormous costs of the proposed expansion to the marine environment and wildlife, human activities at sea, and the national budget.
The biggest concern in my view is that the Navy has applied to NOAA for 11.4 million takings of marine mammals in Pacific and Atlantic waters. As the Navy and the administration is well aware, marine mammals of all types are undergoing a range of human-induced stresses that is reducing their populations; to subject them to additional stress, including sonar and chemical assaults, that will inevitably kill huge numbers of marine mammals is unconscionable and unacceptable. Furthermore, even if the case were substantially made that expanded testing is necessary, what reason could there possibly be for conducting more activities up and down both national coasts? WE ARE NOT AT WAR. No war has been declared, and yet the activities the Navy is proposing are those of a nation at war, which will impact not only our highly values marine life, but fisheries and other human activities at sea, and our national budget, which is unable to provide for far more important services and protections for our citizens.
Residents of Port Townsend, WA (such as myself) already endure the ear-piercing noise of overflights from Oak Harbor Naval Base. Now we learn that the proposed expansion of Naval activities also includes additional low-altitude overflights of our neighborhoods. Why must we endure all this? WE ARE NOT AT WAR!