PORT TOWNSEND – Port Townsend and Jefferson County leaders joined activists in expressing disappointment Wednesday over the Navy’s rejection of their requests for an environmental-impact study at Naval Magazine Indian Island.
The proposed study, under the National Environmental Policy Act, would have targeted the cumulative effects of past, present and future actions at the Naval Magazine, the Navy’s largest munitions storage depot on the West Coast.
“There is no requirement to prepare an environmental-impact statement solely to examine cumulative effects realized over a period of years or after an action or multiple actions have been completed,” BJ Penn, assistant Navy secretary, told the City Council and Jefferson County commissioners in response to their formal requests for the study.
Penn said the city and county letters suggested that the Navy has not properly evaluated the cumulative effects of past actions, alleging violation of the Council on Environmental Quality’s regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act.
“Prior to making a decision regarding any proposed action with the potential for significant impacts on the environment, the Navy reviews that proposed action to determine the appropriate level of environmental analysis required under [the act],” Penn states.
“Each project undertaken at [Naval Magazine] Indian Island has been reviewed in this manner, and a decision has been made about whether to prepare an environmental-impact statement, an environmental assessment, or to apply a [Council on Environmental Quality]-approved categorical exclusion.”
