Olympic Peninsula Environmental News

One of our correspondents did some digging today. Thanks to L.P.  Here’s the report:

I just got a call from John Mosher, Navy Project Manager for that “electronic warfare testing project” reported in the Forks Forum. He had just received a similar call from someone in Forks so he knew my concerns – he confirmed that there was no posting of the project info or comment period for project, in particular in Forks Forum or PDN.

At first he started out defending the project, saying there were going to be 15 sites, only 3 of which were in an area east of Forks “far from the town, in the remote mountains of the Olympic National Forest.”  The sounds were to be emitted from a vehicle, only after it had been ascertained that “no people or animals were nearby.”  I pointed out that was impossible in the terrrain he described.  I also explained that what might seem remote to someone in an office was not remote to the people of Forks who have made/are making their living by logging and collecting salal.  The forest is their “neighborhood.”

I asked whether the Environmental Assessment and the Navy’s Declaration of Non-Significance are posted on the web and he gave me this link  http://go.usa.gov/kQ6e

But when I went there it had lots of old postings with meaningless titles and didn’t see anything that obviously related to this issue.   Unfortunately I didn’t get his contact info but he’s on the Whidbey Island base outside of Oak Harbor.

As we finished he did say that our phone comments now were being made note of, not in the official Comments on those documents but they may be taken into account for “further outreach.”  He did say “I can say that I now wish we had posted the information locally.

Filed under: Puget Sound | Tagged: Forks, Navy, Puget Sound, Warfare testing |