A Central Whidbey citizen group is amping up the scope of its fight against the Navy’s increasing presence in Puget Sound.
Representatives of Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, or COER, say they mailed a letter in February to Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus addressing what they describe as the dangers of the Navy’s new EA-18G Growler.
The group also threatens additional action, if necessary.
“We will promote and commence litigation against the U.S. Navy, organize community protests and demonstrations, and in general do whatever is legal and possible to reveal and deter the destructive activities associated with the Navy’s expansion in the Pacific Northwest,” the COER letter states.
Writing letters to the local and national media, politicians and Navy brass is only part of COER’s ongoing campaign that includes creating regional coalitions and holding educational meetings around Puget Sound.
Ted Brown, the Navy’s Installations and Environmental public affairs officer, said the Secretary of the Navy’s office reported that, as of Tuesday, it had not received COER’s letter, dated Feb. 18.
COER said copies of the letter were also mailed to President Barack Obama, members of the Armed Services Committee, the Washington congressional delegation, Gov. Jay Inslee MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow.
An unsigned version of the letter was sent to the Whidbey News-Times on Saturday.
COER has reached out to residents and organizations in a seven-county area to support its cause, said COER spokeswoman Cate Andrews.
This is, she said, in part to help explain and involve people in the Navy’s Environmental Impact Statement scoping process, but also to help residents in other areas form their own groups “to address the many quality-of-life issues surrounding the military buildup here in Puget Sound.”
Andrews said COER’s outreach began with its first community meeting about the Growlers at the Coupeville Recreation Hall in June 2013.
As a result of that meeting, COER had an increasing number of people throughout Puget Sound contacting them about noise and environmental concerns, Andrews said.
“That’s what spawned it all.”
The group also expanded its list of concerns since 2013. Initially asking only for the closure of Outlying Field Coupeville, where the Navy conducts many of its Growler touch-and-go landing practices, COER is now asking the Navy to remove all Growlers from the Pacific Northwest.
The group said it also opposes the Navy’s use of electromagnetic emitters for Growler training on the Olympic Peninsula.
COER’s also said the Navy has, in recent history, failed to keep its word about operation frequency at OLF Coupeville. Authorized for 6,120 touch-and-go operations after a 2005 Environmental Assessment, the Navy reported 9,378 touch-and-go landings in 2011 and 9,668 in 2012.
COER sued the Navy in 2013.
COER said it pursued extensive research about the effects of noise and pollution created by the Growler.
“It’s not appropriate, it’s too dangerous and it’s too hard on people’s health,” Andrews said. “We know so much more now.”
COER’s letter also makes claims that the Navy has routinely challenged. In the letter, COER likens civilian exposure to that of naval personnel who require “double hearing protection.”
Brown said noise exposure from intermittent aircraft flights in local communities is not comparable to exposure to sailors’ work on the flight line with additional protection.
The Navy also claims that OLF is “essential” to the Navy base, which COER believes is simply not true because the operations stopped there for six months after the EIS began, according to the letter.
Brown said field carrier landing practices, or touch-and-gos, are best performed at a dedicated airfield like OLF because it has low ambient lighting, replicating nighttime conditions onboard an aircraft carrier.
The decision to temporarily halt OLF operations “created adverse operational impacts and is not sustainable,” Brown said.
And while COER said the Navy has been largely unresponsive, the Navy claims it has created “course rules, limit types and duration of certain operations, and maximize overwater flight for takeoffs and landings to minimize the impact on the surrounding communities.”
