Navy Jet "Outlying Landing Field" (NC)
Victory for the refuge! Navy abandons Washington County site for OLF
©Juan Pons
Through SELC advocacy in the Courts and in Congress, hundreds of thousands of waterfowl are protected from an Outlying Landing Field in Washington County, NC .
Handing a final victory to citizens, civic leaders, and environmentalists, the Navy announced in January, 2008 that it will no longer look to Washington county as the location for its Outlying Landing Field (OLF) near Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. The Navy's announcement ends a four year battle that pitted local residents and environmentalists against the Navy.
The Navy also announced that it is abandoning four other sites under previous consideration in Craven, Bertie, Hyde and Perquimans counties. Instead, the Navy will consider two sites in North Carolina -- Sandbanks in Gates County and Hales Lake in Camden/Currituck counties and three in Virginia - Cabin Point, Mason, and Dory.
Congress has failed to provide money for the project in this fiscal year and moved to de-authorize funding for the project in the future. Congressmen Price and Butterfield, Senators Dole and Burr, as well as Governor Easley, came out against the Navy's plans to build the landing field at the Washington county location. Governor Easley also convened a study commission to assist the Navy's efforts to identify alternative locations for the OLF.
SELC has advocated in the courts and in Congress for a stop to the Navy's plans for an OLF in Washington County. In September 2005, a panel of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled in SELC favor that the Navy failed to take a hard look at the environmental effects of a planned Outlying Landing Field to be constructed in northeastern North Carolina and required it to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS). However, the SEIS, released in February, 2007 continued to identify the Washington-Beaufort County site as its preferred alternative.
Since then, SELC has been working with North Carolina's Congressional delegation and political leadership to stop this harmful and illegal project once and for all. In the Spring of 2007, North Carolina Senators Dole and Burr came out against the project, following the lead of Governor Easley and Congressmen Price and Butterfield.
Since then, the Navy has been working with North Carolina and Virginia officials to explore alternative site ideas for an OLF. However, the Navy never abandoned the Washington County site as its preferred alternative and continued to assert that it was the best option, despite growing opposition.
The refuge is winter home to more than 100,000 tundra swans, snow geese and other waterfowl. The Navy's proposed landing field is just a few miles from the refuge and within feeding areas of the winter birds. The area is also habitat for the world’s only wild population of endangered red wolves.
Not only does the project threaten wildlife, the pilots conducting the practice flights – an average of 32,000 a year – would be at tremendous risk from bird strikes. The Navy's draft SEIS said that to control the birds, local farmers would be prohibited from growing corn, soybeans or wheat - economic staples of local farmers - from 25,000 acres surrounding the site in an effort to force the birds elsewhere. It also outlined plans to use poison, dogs and guns to control the birds.
In 2004, SELC sued the Navy for failing to do an objective review of the need for a new OLF and the environmental impacts of the project, as required by law. Instead, the Navy decided to build the OLF near the Pocosin Wildlife Refuge and later "reverse engineered" the process to justify the location, according to documents that SELC uncovered. A year later, US District Court Judge Terence Boyle issued a permanent injunction against the Navy until it complied with the requirement for a comprehensive analysis, a decision upheld by the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in September 2005. Those rulings led to the draft SEIS.
The presence of the red wolf population – including one pack that has made the proposed site its home - and endangered bald eagles in the area have come to light since the original environmental study came out. Also, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service says the Pocosin refuge saw a record number of tundra swan and snow geese in the winter of 2006/07. In December 2006, during the Navy’s first-ever flyover of the proposed OLF, the Super Hornet pilot had to bank away from a flock of large birds, just missing a collision.
SELC is working harder than ever to stop the Navy from siting the landing field near the refuge, one of the most critical habitats for these migratory birds. We are representing the National Audubon Society, Defenders of Wildlife, and the North Carolina Wildlife Federation on the issue.
