[CPEO-MEF] Environmental Review of Navy's Sonar Testing Upheld

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Environmental Review of Navy's Sonar Testing Upheld

Court: A judge rejects U.S. effort to exempt a variety of ocean
activities, including tests that might harm whales, from far-reaching
law.

By GARY POLAKOVIC, TIMES STAFF WRITER

A federal judge in Los Angeles has rejected efforts by the Bush
administration and the Navy to exempt from environmental review a broad
range of activities, including military testing, that take place in the
deep ocean.

In a ruling made public Thursday, Judge Christina A. Snyder said the
National Environmental Policy Act does apply to activities, such as
testing of a Navy sonar system potentially dangerous to whales and
dolphins, that are conducted beyond U.S. territorial waters but within
the nation's "exclusive economic zone." That zone extends 200 miles from
shore.

Environmentalists warned that if the administration prevailed in the
case, it could exempt not only military experiments and exercises from
review but a host of other activities, ranging from oil and gas
pipelines to ocean dumping and commercial fishing.

Snyder ruled, however, that the Navy does not have to submit to an
advance environmental review of its entire planned program of sonar
testing, which consists of at least 17 separate tests of experimental
anti-submarine warfare technologies. The judge did affirm that
"individual sea tests will still be subject to NEPA requirements."

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-navy20sep20.story

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