BANGOR — Members of the public now have until Sept. 28 to submit comments on a Navy project that would build an array of electromagnetic sensors on the sea floor of Hood Canal.
The proposed project, the original comment period for which ended Aug. 30, would dredge about 1.45 acres of sea floor along Hood Canal just off shore of Naval Base Kitsap west of Silverdale, according to Naval Facilities Engineering Command documents.
The comments will be included in a formal environmental assessment the Navy has yet to complete for the project.
Navy engineers want to build the sensor array to read and record the electromagnetic signatures of submarines based out of Naval Base Kitsap as they pass through Hood Canal.
Submarines collect these signatures over time, and these signatures could be detected by enemy sensors during combat operations.
Currently, submarines from Naval Base Kitsap must travel to San Diego or Pearl Harbor in Hawaii to have their electromagnetic signatures read, trips that can take as long as two weeks.
A sensor array serving this purpose once existed in the waters off Naval Base Kitsap but was decommissioned in 1990 because of increases in non-military water traffic.
The Navy later built a temporary sensor array, but it was destroyed by the anchor of a passing fishing vessel in 2007, according to Naval documents.
The proposed sensor array, slated for construction from July 15 to Oct. 1, 2014, would be 400 feet long and be constructed under the sea floor no more than 1 mile offshore.
A 225-square-foot platform, used for maintenance of the sensors, would be built on the water’s surface above the array.
An operations building for the array would be built onshore and connected by roughly 6,000 linear feet of underground cable to the platform.
Submarines intent on utilizing the sensor array would be escorted by U.S. Coast Guard boats and be traveling approximately 10 knots at the water’s surface.
The sensor array will operate passively — receiving signals, not emitting them — and be turned on only when a submarine is passing over it.
The sensor array would be used on average about five times per month with a combined average use time of about 25 minutes per month, according to Navy documents.
The sensors would be spaced about 20 feet apart and buried under the sea floor of Hood Canal.
The sea floor would be dredged and the 21 sensors placed so that their tops would be a minimum of 4 feet below the sea floor.
Visit www.emmrea.com to electronically submit comments on this project.
Comments also can be mailed to Wes Miksa, environmental planner, NAVFAC Northwest, 1101 Tautog Circle, Room 203, Silverdale, WA 98315.
To download a PDF document detailing the sensor array project, visit http://bit.ly/SponzK.
Reporter Jeremy Schwartz can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5074, or at jschwartz@peninsuladailynews.com.
