PACIFIC BEACH — The town with the most direct impact from the Navy’s proposal to expand electronic warfare training in Olympic National Forest had its first public meeting on the plan this week.
More than 175 residents of Pacific Beach in Grays Harbor County attended the Wednesday night meeting, with many voicing opposition.
A five-person team from the Navy — the U.S. Forest Service declined an invitation to attend — defended the military agency’s finding in August that the project would have no significant environmental impact.
They said the Navy had attempted to use the best available science in a process that met all the requirements in the National Environmental Policy Act.
Residents, however, questioned officials for more than two hours at Pacific Beach Elementary School.
While some in the audience came from as far as Forks, Olympia and Seattle to address the Navy plan, local concerns included possible disruption of communication services in and around Pacific Beach, the impact it could have on the frequency of sonic booms and air traffic — and why more notice wasn’t given of the proposed activity.
“We live here. If we had moved to Whidbey Island or SeaTac, we would expect the noise of the flights. We didn’t expect it here,” said North Beach resident Gina Rawlings.
The Navy is preparing to use facilities at Pacific Beach to construct a new tower capable of generating an electromagnetic wave as part of what is being proposed as the Pacific Northwest Electronic Warfare Range.
The tower would be capable of generating an electromagnetic wave at frequencies ranging from 2 to 18 gigahertz.
It would be able to emit up to 64 simultaneous signals while transmitting in pulses or a continuous wave, the Navy’s environmental assessment says.
The Navy has said the tower would not have a significant impact on the public or the community.
It would be part of a larger plan to install and operate an electronic warfare range in which Whidbey Naval Air Station pilots can practice and have that information communicated and analyzed in a central location.
The Navy plan is to use mobile emitters at various locations, including several in western Clallam County, Grays Harbor County and north of the Quinault Nation.
The $11.5 million warfare training project would mark the first use of electromagnetic radiation for the Navy training that pilots now simulate with internal aircraft controls.
The intent is to have the project running by next September.
First, the Navy needs a permit from the Forest Service for use of roads in Olympic National Forest.
Public meetings on the proposal were conducted in Forks on Oct. 14 and Port Angeles on Nov. 6. The two meetings drew almost universal public opposition.
John Mosher, Northwest environmental program manager for the Navy, told the crowd that “just about every aspect of military operations these days involves electronic warfare in one form or another” and that training is critical.
The Navy has concluded that the electromagnetic waves, which would be focused and beamed into the sky, would cause no significant harm to people or animals.
“The equipment we are proposing to use is very similar to other pieces of commercially and publicly available equipment that you will see and you are exposed to on a daily basis,” Mosher said, likening it to a TV broadcasting van or marine radar.
Just because the environmental assessment found no significant impact, that doesn’t mean “game over,” Mosher added.
“Long term, we are committed to working with the local community to make sure we are not affecting your communications systems,” he said.
He noted the plan must have approval of the FCC and other agencies.
Karen Sullivan, a former employee of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, questioned the findings with respect to impact on people and wildlife.
She noted the testing period will be extended from eight hours a day to as much as 16 hours and suggested there are other places the Navy could use.
“So if the Navy says that it needs the Olympic National Forest for training, which happens to be next to a world heritage site in the Olympic National Park, it has to prove that it has no alternative places to go,” Sullivan said, contending she cannot find sufficient proof in the environmental assessment.
Kent Mathes, Northwest Training Range Complex program manager, said the current plan represents the “best alternative.”
The purpose is to train pilots at a basic level so they are able to move on for more advanced training elsewhere.
“This is all very simplistic use of electronic warfare,” he said, noting there are currently about 1,200 flights per year over the area.
The estimate is that the number of flights would increase about 10 percent.
“This is just going to be a very small portion of the flights that are already going on,” Mathes said.
Navy pilot Brian Danielson — who trains pilots at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, where he has been stationed for 17 years — said there is no part of the plan that calls for the Navy to exceed the air space it already uses in training missions currently flown over the sites.
“The current space that we are using right now is capped at 6,000 feet,” the Navy pilot said.
“We can’t go any lower, and we won’t go any lower. There is no plan to do anything differently with regards to going lower, being louder, faster.”
Noise complaints can be directed to NAS Whidbey Island’s comment line at 360-257-6665 or via email at comments.NASWI@navy.mil.
Sullivan said no public comments were received during the environmental assessment period conducted by the Navy, largely because communities were not notified with the exception of a few newspaper legal ads.
“The finding of no significant impact is supposed to have public input. There was none,” she said.
The Forest Service has extended the comment period on the plan and permit until Nov. 28.
Dean Millett, the Pacific District ranger who said he will decide on the permit by mid-2015 at the earliest, said last week the agency has received about 2,200 comments now.
The Navy’s environmental assessment for the project is at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Electrowarfare.
Public comments can be emailed to Forest Service environmental coordinator Greg Wahl at gtwahl@fs.fed.us or at 1835 Black Lake Blvd. S.W., Olympia, WA 98512.
A meeting about a separate proposal to increase the number of EA-18G Growler aircraft at NAS Whidbey Island up to 36 is set from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Dec. 4 at Fort Worden Commons.
_______
Angelo Bruscas is the editor of the North Coast News in Ocean Shores.
