Navy to brief N.C. lawmakers on proposed training range off coast

Navy to brief N.C. lawmakers on proposed training range off coast


Fri, Dec. 16, 2005 RALEIGH, N.C. - State lawmakers on Monday will hear the Navy's pitch for an anti-submarine warfare training range off the North Carolina coast, which the military says won't harm sea life or commercial fishing to the degree that opponents contend. "We want to do this right," said Jim Brantly, a Navy spokesman in Norfolk, Va. "Just because we're the Navy doesn't mean we don't care." The Navy wants to build the range about 50 miles off shore from Camp Lejeune. The Navy, which plans to choose a site late next year, also is considering sites in Virginia and Florida, but prefers North Carolina because of its proximity to military bases on the coast, Brantly said. The range, to be built over a 10-year period at an estimated cost of $98 million, would be used to train crews on ships, submarines and aircraft carriers to use sonar to detect and battle submarines. Brantly said the Navy could start using the first phase of the range in spring 2008. The range would include hundreds of underwater microphones anchored on the ocean floor that would record ship movements and allow exercises to be reconstructed for study. "Now we have to wait four to six weeks to get feedback on what we did right or wrong," Brantly said. "This will allow us to get feedback within hours." Opponents want the Navy to extend the Dec. 28 deadline for public comment on its draft environmental impact statement by 60 days. They say pending reports on the impacts of sonar on whales and other sea life will allow for a better assessment of the range. No decision on the request has been made. "I think the main point with the acoustical effects on marine creatures is this is a science in its infancy, and we really don't know enough for the Navy to make such broad, sweeping conclusions," said Frank Tursi with the N.C. Coastal Federation, the state's largest coastal watchdog group. "I just think it's overly optimistic to say it won't have an effect on porpoises, fish, or turtles." Opponents also say the Navy's plan for monitoring the presence of sea creatures isn't enough. The proposal calls for lookouts aboard ships who would watch for whales and other marine mammals. The Navy would reduce sonar levels if the creatures were spotted. Environmentalists sued the Navy in October, claiming that a widely used form of sonar for detecting enemy submarines disturbs and sometimes kills whales and dolphins. The lawsuit filed in federal court in Los Angeles blames the Navy for the January stranding and deaths of at least 37 whales on North Carolina's Outer Banks after a mid-frequency sonar exercise. The Navy said the exercise was probably too far away to have harmed the whales. The Navy settled a similar lawsuit two years ago by agreeing to limit the peacetime use of experimental low-frequency sonar. The new lawsuit, by the Natural Resources Defense Council and other plaintiffs, seeks a court order to curb mid-frequency sonar, the most common method of detecting enemy submarines. The Navy says its North Carolina range would use a mid-range frequency, a format that's preferred by the plaintiffs. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration plans to release a report on the Outer Banks strandings next month. "There are a number of things that can cause marine mammals to become stranded," said Donna Wieting, deputy director of protected resources at NOAA. This includes sickness, weather, or whales chasing prey, she said. "With each stranding, while it's sad, we are learning a lot more about what causes marine mammals to strand," she said. While the Navy has final say in the project, the N.C. Joint Legislative Commission on Seafood and Aquaculture has asked for a briefing Monday. "By and large, they don't know much about it," said Jeff Hudson, counsel for the commission. ON THE NET U.S. Navy Undersea Warfare Training Range: http://projects.earthtech.com/USWTR/USWTR_index.htm

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