SILVERDALE — The U.S. Navy has released its final environmental impact statement on its proposals for use of sonar and explosives for training and testing in the Puget Sound, Strait of Juan de Fuca and Behm Canal in southeastern Alaska.
The release of the Northwest Training and Testing Final Environmental Impact Statement/Overseas Environmental Impact Statement starts a 30-day clock before a final decision.
No further public input meetings or comment periods are planned.
In December, the Navy had issued a supplement to the draft document that included an updated requirement for increased use of sonobuoys during training in the Northwest Training Range Complex.
The training zone includes areas off the North Olympic Peninsula’s Pacific Coast — including the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary — off Indian Island and in the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
In commenting on the draft statement, the public expressed the greatest number of concerns — 173 — about the use of sound and sonar devices, the Navy said.
Critics have worried that sonar could harm whales and other sea mammals.
The Navy said there were 71 comments regarding underwater explosions, 59 about the need for mitigation of impacts and 57 about study areas.
The document does not deal with another Navy proposal for electronic warfare training in the Olympic Military Operations Area on the Olympic Peninsula West End — the topic of much debate between Port Townsend and Forks — for which the Navy is seeking U.S. Forest Service permits.
Proposed alternative
The final environmental impact statement (EIS) said the Navy’s proposed alternative includes new training exercises every other year off the Olympic coast and mine warfare exercises every year in the Puget Sound in support of homeland defense.
It also would include the testing of undersea systems in Puget Sound, testing activities in the Carr Inlet between Key Peninsula and Gig Harbor Peninsula, pier-side sonar maintenance and testing, sea trials as part of ship overhauls and the elimination of sinking exercises in all Pacific Northwest areas.
A second alternative proposal would include the same training exercises, except for an increase in homeland defense events from every other year to every year.
Most activities in the second alternative would increase in tempo an average of 12 percent over the first one.
The Navy would not expand the area where it conducts training and testing activities.
The Navy has said bombing exercises take place outside the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary, which consists of 2,408 square nautical miles off the Olympic Peninsula coastline.
Final decision in month
Following a final decision in 30 days, the Navy plans to make a decision and issue a “record of decision.”
The decision will be published in the Federal Register and local newspapers and distributed to the public.
David McGinn, the assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations and environment, will make the decision.
The impact statement acknowledged that the primary concerns are traditional-use areas for Native Americans, subsistence resources, marine animals and sea turtles.
Effect on mammals
“Explosive detonations, non-impulsive sources such as sonar, and vessel strikes . . . have the potential to disturb, injure, or kill marine animals and sea turtles,” the statement said.
The Navy said the activities’ impact on marine animals and sea turtle species is small.
“Compared to the potential mortality, stranding and injury resulting from commercial ship strikes and bycatch, entanglement ocean pollution and other human causes, the potential for injury resulting from Navy training and testing activities is estimated to orders of magnitude lower (tens of animals versus hundreds of thousands of animals),” said the report.
The Navy said that tribes could experience temporary loss of access to fishing grounds during training activities.
To mitigate the chances that marine mammals and sea turtles could be affected, the Navy proposed the use of lookouts.
Lookouts
Lookouts, it said, would warn commanders of marine mammals, sea turtles or resources in the area to minimize impacts or explosions that could harm them.
The statement noted that “most Armed Forces activities are exempt from the prohibitions of marine protected areas.
“Nevertheless, the Navy would carry out its training and testing activities in a manner that will avoid, to the maximum extent practicable and consistent with training and testing requirements, adverse impacts to National Marine Sanctuary resources.”
To develop the environmental impact statement, the Navy conducted nine scoping meetings in March 2012 and eight public input meetings in February and March 2014 at locations that included Quilcene, Oak Harbor, Silverdale and Aberdeen.
It also conducted four public meetings in January 2015 for the development of a supplemental filing.
The entire document is available for download at Northwest Training and Testing EIS/OEIS, www.nwtteis.com.
It is also available at the Jefferson County Library at 620 Cedar Ave., Port Hadlock; the Port Angeles Library at 2210 S. Peabody St.; and the Port Townsend Library, 1220 Lawrence St.
