[CPEO-MEF] Opponents vow fight over Navy landing strip

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North Carolina
THE CHAROLOTTE OBSERVER
Opponents vow fight over Navy landing strip
Washington County residents team with wildlife advocates
Bruce Henderson
Posted on Tue, Jul. 22, 2003

Opponents say they will fight "like never before" the Navy's proposal
for a jet-fighter landing strip near a wildlife refuge in Eastern North
Carolina.

"We're well organized, and this is just beginning," said Mayor Brian
Roth of the Washington County seat, Plymouth. Opponents have worked for
months trying to convince the Navy not to locate the airfield in
Washington County.

The Navy released an environmental impact study Friday that recommends
rural Washington County as the site of a practice landing field for
F/A-18 Super Hornets. The site is near Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife
Refuge -- lakes and fields known for migratory waterfowl -- about 250
miles northeast of Charlotte.

The field would serve eight squadrons of the fighters recommended to be
based at the Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia, and two squadrons at
the Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station near Havelock on the N.C.
coast.

Washington County's small population, wide open spaces and central
location between Oceana and Cherry Point made it ideal for the practice
field, the Navy said.

Pocosin Lakes is known for 100,000 tundra swans, snow geese and other
waterfowl that spend the winter there. Critics say jet noise will
disrupt the birds, which in turn could pose the risk of collision with
the planes.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/6355164.htm

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