A federal judge has shot down the U.S. Navy’s environmental review for the expansion of the Growler jet program on Whidbey Island.

Increasing the number of Growlers — electronic-jamming aircraft based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island — has long been controversial in the region due to jet noise and other factors.

But in an Aug. 2 ruling in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington, Judge Richard A. Jones said the Navy had failed to analyze the impacts of the jets on schools and local birds, a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act. 

The Navy approved the expansion of its Growler program on Whidbey in March 2019, and planned to increase flight operations on the island to more than 110,000 per year.

Later that year, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a federal lawsuit that argued the Navy violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the federal Administrative Procedure Act by improperly analyzing the environmental impact the expansion of the Growler program would have on human and environmental health. Ferguson’s lawsuit was filed at the same time a similar lawsuit was filed by Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, an activist group based on Whidbey that has long battled the Navy over the impacts created by Navy flight training near Coupeville.

Ferguson’s lawsuit claimed the Navy failed to complete a thorough analysis of negative impacts to health and childhood learning. The lawsuit also argued that the Navy arbitrarily dismissed impacts to human health and child learning from increased noise, despite many studies indicating that exposure to noise can lead to adverse health outcomes.

“The Navy has an important job. But that does not relieve the federal government of its obligation to follow the law and take a hard look at the public health and environmental impacts of its programs,” Ferguson said. “Today the judge ruled that the Navy fell short of its obligation.”

In his ruling, Jones also said the Navy did not properly consider expanding the Growler program in El Centro, California, in addition to Whidbey Island, and did not properly consider the greenhouse gas impacts of Growler fuel use.

The parties in the lawsuit now have
30 days to either agree on a remedy or a briefing schedule for a remedy.

A Navy spokeswoman declined to comment Monday, noting the Navy would not comment  on pending litigation.

The ruling adopted the recommendation of a U.S. federal magistrate, who issued a report and recommendation in December 2021 in favor of Ferguson’s lawsuit.

“Here, despite a gargantuan administrative record, covering nearly 200,000 pages of studies, reports, comments, and the like, the Navy selected methods of evaluating the data that supported its goal of increasing Growler operations,” Chief Magistrate Judge J. Richard Creatura wrote in his 38-page recommendation. “The Navy did this at the expense of the public and the environment, turning a blind eye to data that would not support this intended result. Or, to borrow the words of noted sports analyst Vin Scully, the Navy appears to have used certain statistics ‘much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination.’”

Members of the Citizen’s of Ebey’s Reserve celebrated the decision.

Robert Wilbur, president of the group, noted the Navy would need to prepare a new environmental impact statement.

The parties in the case would have 30 days to try to negotiate an interim remedy, which Wilbur said the Citizen’s of Ebey’s Reserve had been trying to do since last winter.

The good-faith effort would have two components: reverting all Growler operations back to earlier levels, and helping residents avoid noise exposure by initiating real-time information on flying activity at the Navy’s Outlying Landing Field and Ault Field on Whidbey Island.

“The only response from the Navy, has been along the lines of, ‘We’ll get back to you on that,’” Wilbur recalled.

Navy supporters on Whidbey Island criticized the decision, and said the naval air station on Whidbey and its Outlying Landing Field, where jet pilots practice simulated landings on aircraft carriers, were “fundamental components for essential national defense.”

In a statement, the Oak Harbor Area Council of the Navy League of the United States said the bulk of the claims made by Growler opponents were dismissed.

“This procedural order does not meet activists’ goals after millions of dollars, years of studies, and extended due diligence by the Navy, followed by years of litigation and expense by plaintiffs and defendants,” league officials said.