 |
|
|
|
| News >
Audubon Press Releases > |
|
|
|
Chris Canfield
Audubon North Carolina
919/929-3899
Derb Carter
Michelle Nowlin
Southern Environmental Law Center
919/967-1450
|
|
|
GROUPS JOIN IN SUIT AGAINST NAVY AIRFIELD PLAN
|
Plan Imperils Pilots, Migratory Birds, and Communities
|
|
|
Raleigh, NC, January 9, 2004 - The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC), representing the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the North Carolina Wildlife Federation, will file suit in federal court Friday challenging the Navy’s plan to build a military jet landing field in the heart of the Atlantic migratory bird flyway and a few miles from a national wildlife refuge. The groups say the government’s environmental impact studies for the landing field downplayed the substantial risk of collisions between jets and the large flocks of tundra swans, snow geese and other birds that winter in the area, and minimized adverse impacts to the wildlife refuge.
Citing extensive evidence from wildlife experts, including the scientist who led part of the Navy’s own study, the lawsuit characterizes as “reckless” the plan for a new F/A 18 E/F Super Hornet jet training field within five miles of the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina. The refuge is winter home to some 100,000 large swans, snow geese and other waterfowl, known to represent a severe risk to low-flying aircraft and their pilots. The $186.5 million facility would be located on 30,000 acres the Navy plans to acquire in Washington and Beaufort counties. The counties are filing their own lawsuit against the Navy on Friday.
The conservationist groups will be joined by the counties’ attorneys at a press conference to announce the filing of their lawsuits.
When: Friday, January 9; 10:30 a.m.
Where: NC Museum of Natural Sciences, Level A Meeting Room, 11 West Jones Street,
Raleigh, NC
Who: Chris Canfield, Audubon North Carolina; Derb Carter, Southern Environmental
Law Center; Michelle Nowlin, Southern Environmental Law Center; Attorneys
with the Charlotte law firm of Kennedy Covington, filing on behalf of the counties
Also on Friday, a coalition of landowners and other opponents have schedule a ribbon cutting for a “tent city” near the site of the proposed landing field where they vow to camp out around-the-clock, seven days a week to protest the project. Attorneys and conservation leaders will also hold a briefing for press and the community at the tent city near Plymouth, North Carolina, at 2:30 p.m. on Friday. Directions to the location and other information are available at www.albemarlecommunity.net/SiteIndex.html or by calling 252-927-3792.
On September 10, 2003, the Navy issued a decision to base new squadrons of Super Hornet jets at bases in Virginia and North Carolina, and to share training runs at the proposed new field, which lies in between. Pilots would use the field to practice landing on aircraft carriers. The plaintiff groups, along with dozens of other conservation organizations, federal and state wildlife agencies, political leaders and community groups, have consistently objected to the location as destructive to the environment and dangerous for pilots.
“Siting the landing field near this wildlife refuge puts pilots and birds on a collision course that will be deadly for both,” said Derb Carter, SELC senior attorney. “Of all the places to put this kind of facility, the Navy has chosen one of the worst.”
“The Navy has had almost two years to listen to the experts, be honest with the public about their intentions, and to find a safe location for this field,” said Chris Canfield, executive director of Audubon North Carolina. “They have failed on all accounts, so we have no choice but to launch this legal battle to defend some of the nation’s most important natural areas.”
Ronald L. Merritt, former head of Bird Aircraft Strike Hazard programs for the U.S. Air Force worldwide, and a consultant to the Navy in its study on the project, wrote to the Navy secretary in October 2003 that “the bird strike issue was minimized in the Final Environmental Impact Statement. … There are very few places in the United States where this level of threat exists.”
The Navy’s own final report ranked the risk of bird strikes as “severe” for 50% of the year. Of the six total sites reviewed by the Navy, the only other one with higher risk was just a few miles to the east, near Lake Mattamuskeet National Wildlife Refuge. Further, as the conservationists’ lawsuit points out, that risk is averaged over the year, so the actual risk is much higher during the birds’ peak wintering season of November through April.
In addition to the project’s impacts to birds and to pilots, the lawsuit says the Navy also failed to consider the cumulative environmental impacts of the project and another plan by the Department of the Navy, announced in December, to designate 900 square miles of airspace over eastern North Carolina for jet combat training. These proposed Military Operations Areas (MOAs) overlie four national wildlife refuges - Pocosin Lakes, Lake Mattamuskeet, Swanquarter and Alligator River - the Swanquarter Wilderness Area, and the Cape Lookout National Seashore.
“The government’s decision to pursue these actions without further environmental or public review, especially after announcing the landing field, is beyond belief, and illegal,” SELC senior attorney Michelle Nowlin said. The lawsuit also cites the government’s failure to document impacts to wetlands, marine life, cultural resources, and consider how minority and low-income communities would be unfairly affected.
The project has drawn criticism from numerous quarters, including presidential candidate Senator John Edwards, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the N.C. Department of Environmental and Natural Resources, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, several state legislators, virtually all localities in the region, the N.C. Farm Bureau, the U.S./Canadian Wildlife Directors in the Atlantic Flyway Council, and dozens of national, state and local conservation groups.
The Department of Interior, including officials with the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and the regional Fish and Wildlife Service, have publicly opposed the military’s selection of the field site and its MOA plans, claiming significant disruption to the operations of their refuges. In a letter from the service to the Navy made available to SELC Wednesday through a Freedom of Information request, the service says the chosen landing field site is “unacceptable.”
Senator Elizabeth Dole and North Carolina Governor Mike Easley have also questioned the Navy’s choice of locations. On December 31, Gov. Easley asked the U.S. Department of Commerce to help resolve the dispute between the Department of Interior and the Navy.
The complaint will be available online Friday at www.SouthernEnvironment.org,
or contact Cat McCue at SELC, 434-977-4090 or cmccue@selcva.org
Contacts for other plaintiffs in the lawsuit:
NC Wildlife Federation - Tim Gestwicki, 704-377-4696; ncwf_charlotte@mindspring.com
Defenders of Wildife - Mike Senatore, 202-682-9400, ex. 123; msenatore@defenders.org
The Southern Environmental Law Center is a regional nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting the South’s native forests, wetlands, coast, clean air, rivers and streams, wildlife habitat, rural landscapes and livable communities. SELC works through legal advocacy, policy reform and public education in partnership with more than 100 other groups in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
| |
Audubon is dedicated to protecting birds and other wildlife and the habitat
that supports them. Our national network of community-based nature centers and
chapters, scientific and educational programs, and advocacy on behalf of areas
sustaining important bird populations, engage millions of people of all ages
and backgrounds in positive conservation experiences.
# # #
|
|
|
|
|
|
Featured Links
Of Interest:
|
|
|
|
