The U.S. Navy two years ago persuaded legislators, the media, NOAA, and even environmental groups who should know better that Navy war games and testing of unidentified weapons, drone aircraft, sonar, and war ships over the entire Pacific Northwest coastline would have no significant effects on marine life or coastal residents. [link to previous articles?]
As if that weren't bad enough, the Navy now intends to increase all those activities, once again without identifying what they will be doing or where. Pacific coast residents this week received postcards from the U.S. Navy inviting the public to participate in the National Environmental Policy Act Process by attending “Open House Information Sessions” in remote, scarcely accessible towns in California, Oregon, Washington (State), and Alaska.
The Open House Information Sessions will be staffed by Navy representatives, a euphemism for private contractors who have no authority to answer questions presented by the public. As before, these “sessions” will be limited to a PR firm's shiny posters and glossy brochures and a shiny, token staff who are instructed not to make any public presentation of the Navy's proposed plans. The Navy will not allow formal oral comments or questions from the public at these sessions.
In other words, the Navy invites the public to a PR session about unidentified plans to expand its war games and weapons testing throughout coastal waters and northwest air space from 250 miles offshore inland to the Idaho border. The Navy will neither identify its plans nor answer any questions about them. We are then invited to submit written comments on all these unidentified plans by April 27.
I am not making this up. You can see for yourself here.
Those who wish to comment on such lunacy might point out the following violations of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA):
The Notice Periods for the Navy Open House Information Sessions all provide less than 30 days notice, in some cases less than two-weeks notice, in violation of the 30-days notice required by the National Environmental Policy Act.
The U.S. Navy is not making a public presentation of any kind in violation of requirements for a scoping notice under NEPA.
In further violation of NEPA, the U.S. Navy will not allow formal oral comments or questions from the public at its Information Sessions, which therefore cannot in any way meet the scoping requirements of NEPA for preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS).
The stated purpose of the new EIS is to evaluate the potential environmental impacts from military experiments, development, testing, and introduction of new vessels, aircraft (including drones and drone surveillance over both sea and land areas), and weapons systems experiments and testing. However, as the U.S. Navy notice provides no specific information on what new vessels, aircraft, and weapons systems they plan to test, or where, such notice precludes any meaningful public comment and further violates both the intent and substance of NEPA.
The Navy plans unidentified expansion of the testing areas of the NWTRC (Northwest Training Range Complex), to encompass additional areas, land based sonar, and areas in Alaska. The Navy's failure to provide any specific information on land and ocean expansion or the location or extent of new weapons system testing precludes meaningful public comment and further violates both the intent and substance of NEPA.
The Federal Register and Post Card Notice did not give the public 30 days to read any associated materials which are not available on the U.S. Navy's grossly uninformative website, and the Navy clearly states that they will make no presentation or allow the public to ask questions and raise issues before the public comment deadline of April 27, 2012. (This is clearly a violation of NEPA.)
The Navy should be required to hold valid scoping sessions with actual information presented by Navy officials rather than PR firms and other Navy contractors, and to answer questions from those attending said meetings. Such meetings should be held not only in remote communities, but also in urban centers and the State Capitol of each state involved so that state officials and members of Congress could easily attend (Sacramento, CA, Salem, Oregon, Seattle, WA, Boise, Idaho & Juneau, Alaska).
The Navy has no plan or intent to protect any National Marine Sanctuaries, Marine Reserves, breeding habitats, or sensitive biological areas; the Navy refuses to stop testing while whales and salmon migrate along the coastal regions, and also refuses to protect breeding, feeding, and fishing areas throughout our coastal regions.
The first Navy NEPA Open House is in Washington (State), on March 13, 2012. The Meetings in Oregon are on March 19 and 20, and those in California are on March 22-23, 2012.
Here are links to the U.S. Navy Website regarding this issue. There is very little information provided by the Navy website on this expansion and new EIS/OEIS.
U.S. Navy Home Page- Website & Information on Filing Public Comments
U.S. Navy Website for Filing Public Comments by April 27, 2012:
Comments in Writing Must be Received by the U.S. Navy in Writing no later than April 27, 2012:
Naval Facilities engineering Command Northwest
Attn: Mrs. Kimberly Kler, NWTT EIS/OEIS, Project Manager
1101 Tautog Circle, Suite 203, Silverdale, WA 98315-1101
Send copies of your comments to your legislators, local and national media, environmental groups and anyone else, including Occupy West Coast.