2005 CPEO Military List Archive

From: Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>
Date: 24 Feb 2005 06:03:13 -0000
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: [CPEO-MEF] Judge rules against Navy on NC airfield
 
Judge Finds Distortion in Navy Study for Airfield

By FELICITY BARRINGER
New York Times
February 19, 2005

WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 - A federal judge ruled Friday that the Navy distorted an environmental impact study to justify the construction of an airfield near a large waterfowl refuge in eastern North Carolina.

The Navy's evaluation of the risks the project posed both to tens of thousands of migrating geese and tundra swans and to the military jets with which they might collide was unjustifiable and designed to support "a predetermined conclusion," the judge, Terrence W. Boyle of Federal District Court, concluded.

Judge Boyle barred the Navy from continuing to buy or condemn land in Washington County around the planned practice field for carrier pilots until an objective environmental review was conducted.

Ruling in a lawsuit brought by the National Audubon Society, among others, the judge wrote that the Navy "failed to conduct a thorough analysis of the environmental impacts."

"The result is a clear error of judgment resulting in a conclusion with no rational basis in the evidence," Judge Boyle wrote.

The judge also noted that Navy e-mail messages unearthed by the plaintiffs "strongly suggest" that the Navy had made a political decision to select the rural North Carolina site because it was concerned that adding more flights to the landing fields in the heavily populated Norfolk, Va., area would intensify protests over jet noise.


...


For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/19/national/19bird.html?


-- Lenny Siegel Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041 Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545 Fax: 650/961-8918 http://www.cpeo.org

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