Navy Withdraws Runway Plans Near Wildlife Refuge

Navy Withdraws Runway Plans Near Wildlife Refuge



Feb, 2008  - Lacking political, 
environmental or local support, the U.S. Navy has announced it is 
abandoning plans to build an outlying landing field to train jet pilots in 
Washington and Beaufort counties in North Carolina adjacent to the Pocosin 
Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and its tens of thousands of swans, geese, 
and ducks. 
The proposed project has met opposition from environmentalists, local 
community members, and North Carolina's political leadership. 
"Audubon applauds the Navy's decision today to steer clear of the proposed 
landing field site next to Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge," said 
Chris Canfield, executive director of the Audubon Society's North Carolina 
chapter. 
"This is a victory for the hundred thousand birds that winter there and 
for the farmers that live there. It is a victory for the people of North 
Carolina and the political leaders who represent them," Canfield said. 
"It is also a victory for the Navy and its pilots, which deserve the 
safest training possible, without the threat of catastrophic collisions 
with large birds," he said. 
The training runway was planned within 3.5 miles of the refuge and would 
have meant 31,000 landings and departures each year, averaging one every 
30 minutes. 
"This round-the-clock barrage of noise from takeoffs, landings and 
low-level holding patterns amongst tens of thousands of birds puts both 
wildlife and pilots at risk," said Defenders of Wildlife, which has 
battled the landing field for years. 

Conservationists say the constant disturbance would harm migratory 
waterfowl by depriving them of adequate rest and food which can disrupt 
breeding and migration activities. The disruption could also lead to 
abandonment of the refuge by many forms of wildlife, pushing them onto 
lower quality lands where they may face even more dangerous conditions 
The Navy also announced that it is abandoning four other North Carolina 
sites previously under consideration in Craven, Bertie, Hyde and 
Perquimans counties. 
Instead, the Navy will consider two new 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 failed to provide money for the project in this fiscal year and 
taken steps to de-authorize funding for the project in the future. 
Previously, the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Navy 
had violated federal environmental laws in planning for the outlying 
landing field. 
In addition, the Navy's plans for the outlying landing field prohibited 
farmers from growing corn, wheat and soybeans, which are staples of the 
local farming economy, on 25,000 acres of farmland surrounding the 
proposed landing field. 
Represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, the National Audubon 
Society, Defenders of Wildlife and the North Carolina Wildlife Federation 
filed a lawsuit against the Navy in 2004, arguing that the Navy violated 
the National Environmental Policy Act in planning for the outlying landing 
field. 
This lawsuit resulted in rulings from a federal district court and the 
Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that the Navy in fact had violated 
national environmental laws in selecting the site for the outlying landing 
field. 
"The Navy said it wanted this site for the OLF because it was 'in the 
middle of nowhere' ignoring the fact that it's the center of the universe 
for thousands of migrating birds and home to generations of farming 
families," said Michelle Nowlin, attorney with the Southern Environmental 
Law Center. 
While the Navy was rewriting its court-ordered environmental analysis, 
North Carolina's top officials came out against the Navy's preferred site 
for an outlying landing field in Washington County. 
In December 2007, U.S. Senators Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr of North 
Carolina and Governor Mike Easley wrote to Secretary of the Navy Donald 
Winter to emphasize their position that the support of local residents is 
essential for locating an outlying landing field in North Carolina. 
"The Washington County site is universally opposed and should not be 
considered as a viable option," wrote Dole, Burr and Easley to Winter. "In 
addition, residents in Gates and Camden Counties have been unequivocal, 
especially given the burden to economic benefit ratio, in their opposition 
to an OLF." 

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