[CPEO-MEF] Judge rules against Navy on NC airfield

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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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