Citizens Ask Island County to Halt “Irreparable Injury”

— from Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve —

Island County Commissioners faced a room full of concerned and sometimes tearful Whidbey Island residents requesting specific actions be taken in response to documented proofs of on-going health harms caused by Navy’s Low-Flying “Growler” Attack Jets. Proof of noise inflicted injuries were presented to the Commissioners at their May 12 meeting in the form of declarations from medical experts, a local practicing physician, an acoustical expert, and victims suffering health problems attributed to the hazardous noise from low-flying Navy ‘Growler’ jets.

Growlers noise on Whidbey Island represents a “health crisis” according to James Dahlgren, MD, a Diplomat of the American Board of Internal Medicine, Occupational and Environmental Medicine and Toxicology. The controversial Growlers are the loudest jets ever to fly and are the source of increasing noise complaints throughout Puget Sound.

The declarations presented to the Island County Commissioners were attached to a Motion for Preliminary Injunction recently filed in federal Court by Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve For A Healthy, Safe & Peaceful Environment (“COER”). The Motion seeks to halt on-going Growler touch-and-go operations at an outlying field (OLF) until an Environmental Impact Statement is completed.
The Navy uses the OLF for touch-and-go operations where Growlers fly a few hundred feet over the rooftops of more than 600 homes and over 6,000 residents including many children.

Thousands of Growler operations, sometimes extending late into the night, have caused or contributed to a host of health problems according to declarations and testimony of experts and noise victims. The court is being asked to halt the OLF Growler operations until the impacts to people and the environment are thoroughly assessed – not after irreparable harms have occurred.

The Commissioners, whose stated mission is to, “Provide for the long term health and safety of the people, the economy and our natural resources.” were presented with the following three requests.

1. “We would like the Commissioners to write a Resolution that states that there is a Public Health Emergency in Central Whidbey due to Growler flights at OLF Coupeville, and call for a permanent ban on all such military training from occurring at the OLF,” stated Ken Pickard a noise victim and member of COER. “Concern for the health of Island County inhabitants is one of your primary responsibilities,” concluded Pickard.

2. “We ask that the Commissioners give Island County Environmental Officer, Brad Thomas, M.D. authority to review the declarations and recommend actions to be taken that will prevent citizen exposure to hazardous Growler jet noise,” stated Maryon Atwood, a noise victim and member of COER. “We would like to hear Dr. Thomas’s summary of findings at a public meeting, as soon as possible,” she added.

3. “We ask that the Commissioners address citizen noise concerns in the up-dated Island Count Master Plan where public comments ranked noise as number 5 out of 28 of concerns needing to be addressed,” according to noise victim and COER member Jan Pickard. “This problem is not going away and people are rightly concerned, yet you Commissioners have decided not to take any action on this problem — which was clearly a priority for people who attended your meetings,” she stated. She urged the Commissioners to, “Consider citizen comments and propose action items on noise. This is not only reasonable — it’s good leadership.”

Citizens from Clinton, Oak Harbor, Freeland and Coupeville attended the Commissioner’s meeting to register their concerns. Cate Andrews, a Coupeville noise victim, read excerpts from 8 declarations and pointed out that noise levels regularly exceeded community standards established by the State of Washington, the EPA, and the World Health Organization.

The declaration of Dr. James Dahlgren, one of several presented to the Commissioners states,

“The noise from the Navy’s Growler aircraft landing and taking off from Outlying Landing Field … is causing and has caused serious adverse health effects in the residents as described in the thirteen declarations of residents living near the field. As predicted from hundreds of scientific studies of health effects from noise at the levels measured near the OLF Coupeville by JGL Acoustics in 2013, such levels of noise pressure are causing insomnia, anxiety, depression, impaired concentration, hearing loss, tinnitus (ringing in the ears), hypertension, worsening diabetes, gastrointestinal difficulties and a major detriment in quality of life.”

Also presented to the Commissioners were declarations from an Advanced Practice Nurse specializing in occupational and environmental health and that of a practicing local physician.

Tom Ewell, from Clinton, well known for his reconciliation work among faith-based groups, played recorded Growler noise to the Commissioners to give them a sense of what people experienced at their homes. Ewell stated, “the problem is the noise and it must be addressed. People have been injured and in crises for too long.” “Citizens deserve to know if their local agencies and elected leaders are willing to protect them,” concluded Ewell.

Members of COER have requested a timely response to the three requests made of the Island County Commissioners.

For more information about COER or the Motion for Preliminary Injunction and declarations, visit COER’s website at: www.citizensofebeysreserve.com.