Marrowstone residents groan over Growlers

Posted

Marrowstone Island residents addressed the Jefferson County commissioners Monday to express their concerns about the U.S. Navy’s interest in increased testing of EA-18G Growler aircraft from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

Lisa Van Horn had attended the Navy’s Dec. 5 open house meeting, and told the commissioners Feb. 13 she was worried about the Navy’s stated plans to use data modeling rather than acoustic sampling to measure the noise levels generated by the Growlers, especially since she was told that Marrowstone was not considered an affected area.

Van Horn said she is associated with a retreat that books guests from around the country, especially during the spring and summer months, and she was concerned about booking guests with Navy planes flying out of Coupeville from 4 to 11 p.m. or midnight, especially if the Navy expands its current training hours.

“That affects the economy for us and for neighboring businesses, which impacts our quality of life,” Van Horn said.

John Comstock, a Navy veteran living in Nordland, drew upon his 15 years of working for the Veterans Administration Medical Center, as well as the hearing loss he incurred in the service, to comment upon the past three years of jet noise that he’s endured at his home.

“Sleep is often impossible, despite wearing earplugs, or with a pillow over my head indoors with the windows closed,” said Comstock, who claimed the Growlers have buzzed Indian Island at less than 250 feet. “Choosing to continue or expand these training flights in our area is an intrusion that corrodes my normal patriotism and support for our military.”

Comstock proposed the alternatives of either relocating the training where a number of other Growlers are already stationed, or employing unmanned drones.

135 GROWLER FLIGHTS A DAY

Kathleen Waldron deemed the Growlers “the single loudest aircraft ever manufactured,” and asked how their ferries, forests and wildlife would be affected by the jets’ noise and electromagnetic waves.

“[The jets’] low flight disturbs the migrating wetland area by the ferry and heads over water, where sound travels faster, and where orcas, dolphins and whales communicate by sound,” Waldron said. “Will their sonar be jammed? How will it affect the crew and passengers on board a ferry?”

With 135 Growler flights out of Coupeville five nights a week, Indian Island, Fort Flagler and Port Townsend would all be affected, Waldron said.

“The animals will be terrified, and will have gone from living in the quietest place to living in a war zone,” Waldron said. “We need to speak for them, and ourselves.”

Quilcene resident Brian Cullin, a retired Navy captain and former public affairs officer, admitted that it had often been his job in the service to defend the Department of Defense in cases such as this, but opined that the Navy’s recent draft environmental impact statement (EIS) “underestimates the impact” of the proposed increase in Growler flights.

“I believe it is necessary to train pilots through actual flights,” Cullin said. “There’s only so much you can do on a simulator. But the impact to this region will drive the public reactions, which will expand astronomically. This will end up in the courts.”

Kurt Steinbach said he has lived on Marrowstone Island for 26 years, and reported to the commissioners about his own loss of sleep and emotional fatigue due to the existing level of flights, as well as the negative impacts to local businesses with guest complaints about the noise levels.

“I can personally attest to witnessing the outrage often felt toward the military for invading and degrading the quality of life many of us hold as a significant reason why we live, visit and vacation in Jefferson County,” said Steinbach, who also voiced concerns about the county’s tax base, citing a study that showed the Growler program has depressed property values on Whidbey Island by $9.8 million.

Commissioner David Sullivan wondered aloud whether Jefferson County could follow the lead of San Juan County by giving its IT (information technology) department the task of documenting residents’ complaints about the Growlers. But even before County Administrator Philip Morley responded, Sullivan acknowledged that IT staff are already revamping the county’s website.

“They’re also working on the county’s [geographic information systems],” Morley said. “Taking on this task as well would involve some level of priority setting and delaying the GIS improvements.”

To prevent the Navy from claiming plausible deniability, Morley would want a more secure system than that of San Juan County, which allows people to file complaints about Growler noise regardless of whether they live in the same county.

Commission chair Kathleen Kler reported that she’s had conversations with U.S. Sens. Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray for at least a year about the Growler noise issue.

Kler compared the Navy’s use of yearlong averages of noise levels to “someone poking you a little bit with a knife the rest of the year, then plunging it in 10 inches in a single thrust, and then averaging all 365 days to show that it wasn’t that bad.

“You can have 23 hours of quiet the rest of the day, but that remaining hour matters if your organs are reverberating with a noise that goes beyond decibel levels,” Kler said.

Kler closed with a slightly muddled statement. “I don’t want to say we’re up against the Navy, but … ?” Kler said. “This is a time of fear, and our rights seem … I’ll stop right there,” Kler added, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Commissioner Kate Dean shared Kler’s sense of distress over the Navy’s methods of noise measurement, and contrasted locals’ reports of Growlers flying at 500 feet and lower against the Pentagon’s insistence that those jets have never flown that low.

“We seem to have divergent facts,” Dean said. “We have been a very good neighbor to the Navy, but now, the Navy needs to be a good neighbor back.”

Dean said the commissioners have not settled on a collective letter yet to send to the Navy, but they’re concerned with not creating “any further polarization” within the community.

COMMENTS DUE FEB. 24

The draft EIS is viewable at whidbeyeis.com and is available at area public libraries.

The deadline to comment is Feb. 24, 2017.

Comments can be made by mail to EA-18G EIS Project Manager, Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Atlantic – Attn: Code EV21/SS, 6506 Hampton Blvd., Norfolk, VA 23508, or go to the online form at whidbeyeis.com/Comment.aspx.