[CPEO-MEF] "U.S. Air Force Sued Over Low Level Training Flights"

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For the complete article go to:
http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2000/2000L-02-02-06.html


U.S. Air Force Sued Over Low Level Training Flights

By Cat Lazaroff
ENS


 WASHINGTON, DC, February 2, 2000 (ENS) - A broad coalition of citizens
groups from around the country filed suit in Federal District Court in
Washington, D.C., last week to force the United States Air Force to
reevaluate its flight training program. The groups, led by the Rural
Alliance for Military Accountability and the Center for Biological
Diversity, say low level military training flights harm wildlife, livestock
and rural communities. 

The lawsuit seeks to require the Air Force to prepare a programmatic
Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for its nationwide low level flight
training program. The coalition says the Air Force is violating the
National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by failing to comprehensively
address the environmental impacts of the Program, as required by federal
law and as requested for years by other government agencies and concerned
citizens. 

The lawsuit also seeks to halt Air Force low-level flights until the
required PEIS has been prepared. The defendants named in the case include
the Air Force, Acting Secretary of the Air Force F. Whitten Peters, the
Department of Defense, and Secretary of Defense William Cohen. 

"The Air Force's low-level flight training program consists of highly
intrusive military flights over many rural, undeveloped areas throughout
the nation, including national parks, wilderness areas, national wildlife
refuges and wild and scenic rivers," said Peter Galvin, Conservation
Biologist for the Center for Biological Diversity. 

"These low-level military overflights are extremely loud, sometimes
deafening, and startling to human beings and animals, causing wildlife and
livestock to panic and stampede and impairing their ability to reproduce
and raise their young," Galvin continued. "Cumulatively, these low-level
overflights are having very harmful impacts on numerous wildlife species,
including migratory birds, raptors such as bald eagles and peregrine
falcons, mammals such as bighorn sheep and antelope, cultural resources and
rural communities." 

continued...

http://ens.lycos.com/ens/feb2000/2000L-02-02-06.html

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