Greetings Citizen Petitioners:
It has been awhile since I reported on our activities. We just had another Board Meeting and let me tell you that our Board Members are brilliant, motivated and simply great folks.
Let’s see:
Our able environmental lawyer, David Mann in Seattle, is blazing away on our NEPA lawsuit against the Navy in U.S. District Court trying to force the Navy to prepare a detailed environmental impact statment on the transition to the EA18G Growlers, just got a judge assigned and there is a preliminary hearing coming up to schedule discovery, motions and trial dates, so all is going well there. Interestingly, immediately after getting sued the Navy suspended all flights at OLF Coupeville throught the end of 2013. So, they have not flown here since May and what a BLESSING it has been, our homes are habitable, our gardens able to be visited and worked in and all are so thankful to have this break and enjoy our homes and National Park here!
We have retained a nationally renowned aviation attorney, Ms. Barbara Lichman, in Los Angeles and she is consulting with us and our other lawyer, brainstorming additional actions we might be able to take against the Navy and Island County, such as violations of Hazardous Waste Act, Clean Air Act, State Environmental Policy Act, possible inverse condemnation suit against Navy for taking hundreds of millions dollars in propery value from homeowners in four counties, Island, Skagit, San Juan and Jefferson,due to increased noise levels, a constitutional claim for taking without compensation.
Our environmental and occupational health experts/physicians at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle are working up reports on the health impacts of the noise measured by the Jerry Lilly Noise Study on children and adults. Harborview is focusing on impacts on children and an environmental health nurse on adults.Those reports are due out sometime in October and the results will, we predict, be schocking. We will have a community forum to educate the public and our leaders and hopefully shame our leaders into stopping this torture and abuse by the Navy.
We are on the verge of retaining an airport safety engineering firm to do a crash/risk analysis on OLF due to hundreds of homes being located in the crash zones at either end of the OLF runway. Their preliminary take is…IT IS VERY DANGEROUS! Shame on the Navy for risking our health and lives while claiming to protect us.
We need your continuing support to help us help all of us have a healthy, peaceful and safe place to live. Please visit our website at citizensofebeysreserve.com and volunteer your time, join if you have not and continue to support this effort.
Ken Pickard
President Citizens Of The Ebey’s Reserve For A Healthy, Safe and Peaceful Environment
I have the perfect win win solution. I think the Navy, USAF and US Army should establish a joint Detachment at the Outlying field in Coupeville. They can assign 10-20 Predator drones there. Build a couple of hangers and maintenance facilities, some billiting for personell. The added infrastructure will provide employment for construction and upkeep, the added personell will provide revenue and taxes to Coupeville. The Predators are very quiet compared to Growlers so the noise issue will than be negligable. Perfect solution for both the Navy and Coupeville!!