U.S. Navy seeks public input on sub power plan for Indian Island

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Public comment is allowed until Sept. 11 on a U.S. Navy proposal to modify the electrical distribution system at the Naval Magazine (NAVMAG) Indian Island ammunition pier to better serve submarines during ordnance handling operations.

The Draft Environmental Assessment (EA) evaluates the potential environmental effects associated with proposed construction of a looped power distribution system the Navy wants to supply permanent shore-based power to submarines while they are berthed at NAVMAG Indian Island.

The Draft EA is available online for public review and comment at go.usa.gov/tAr4.

The Navy is accepting written comments throughout the comment period, from Aug. 12 to Sept. 11, 2015. All written comments must be received by Sept. 11 to be considered by the Navy as it prepares the Final EA. Comments may be sent by email to NWNEPA@navy.mil or by mail to:

Naval Facilities Engineering Command ATTN: Shore Power NEPA Planner, 1101 Tautog Circle, Room 203, Silverdale, WA 98315.

INDIAN ISLAND

Navy property since 1939, Indian Island's role expanded in the 1980s at the same time a base for ballistic missile submarines came to Bangor on Hood Canal. Since the 1990s, NAVMAG Indian Island has become the armed forces' most frequented ordnance center on the West Coast. The site across Port Townsend Bay from the City of Port Townsend and communities of Kala Point, Irondale and Port Hadlock, is used to maintain and store bombs, bullets, cruise missiles, torpedoes and other explosive ordnance.

The Navy's new class of submarines emerged in 2005 when the first of four Ohio-class ballistic missile subs were retrofitted from ballistic missile subs to instead carry cruise missiles and special operations forces. The Navy in 2004 announced the refitted submarines, homeported at Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor, would use Indian Island to load and unload Tomahawk cruise missiles and torpedoes.

The refitted submarines do not carry nuclear missiles, but are nuclear powered. NAVMAG Indian Island does not have storage facilities for nuclear weapons.

WHARF POWER

Currently, submarines using the ammunition wharf receive power from two diesel-powered generators located on the shore adjacent to the ammunition wharf. The Proposed Action is needed because the Navy's Clean Air Act permit for two existing diesel-powered generators had a condition that the generators be removed as the primary source of electricity at the ammunition wharf, according to a press release.

The Draft EA analyzes the potential environmental effects from the implementation of three action alternatives and a No Action Alternative. Under Alternative 1 (Preferred Alternative), the Navy would construct a new power distribution system by installing new power poles and new overhead distribution lines along existing roads and replacing an existing electrical substation on the ammunition wharf. Once the new system became operational, the Navy would remove the existing diesel generators and supporting equipment.

Under Alternative 2, the Navy would install new underground distribution lines and remove the existing generators and equipment. Under Alternative 3, the Navy would purchase and install new permanent generators at the ammunition wharf.

Under the No Action Alternative, the Navy would continue to operate the existing generators to provide power to submarines using the ammunition wharf until Sept. 30, 2016. After Sept. 30, 2016, the ammunition wharf would no longer provide power to submarines berthed at the ammunition wharf. The No Action Alternative would not meet the purpose of, and need for, the Proposed Action, but is carried forward as a baseline for the analysis in the Draft EA, according to the Navy.