Inslee Administration Stands with Local Leaders as Navy Walks Away From Mitigation Negotiations

— from Maryon Attwood for Sound Defense Alliance —

The Navy just announced that it terminated negotiations with consulting parties over fundamental differences in how to protect historical properties impacted by increased noise. Termination of consultation is an option provided to a federal agency under the Section 106 process, although it’s a rare and undesired outcome.

There have been two federal processes engaged in evaluating the Navy’s massive expansion plans in NW Washington: the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and the National Environmental Preservation Act (NEPA) process. The NHPA Section 106 process concludes with a Memorandum of Agreement and the NEPA process ends with a Record of Decision (RoD) made by the Secretary of the Navy

All consulting partners to the Section 106 process declined to sign the final agreement – including the Governor’s staff at the Washington State Department of Historic Preservation. Consulting parties did not believe that the Navy’s mitigations qualified as mitigations because they did nothing to reduce or minimize new jet noise impacts.

The Navy rarely acknowledges negative impacts, yet admitted that indirect adverse effects to the Reserve’s 17,000-acre historic district would result from more aircraft operations. In spite of this admission, the Navy was only willing to offer money to mitigate their impacts. Offers started at $150,000 and increased to $1 million and all were rejected.

“Governor Inslee and local leaders know that no amount of money can protect this national historic district, established by Congress in 1978, from the devastating impacts of increased flights.” commented Maryon Attwood, chair of the Sound Defense Alliance. Attwood concluded, “The military missed the point, if they thought this was about the money.”

The Governor stated in an October 26 letter to the Navy, “The Navy’s proposed undertaking as currently presented is unacceptable to the state of Washington. The Navy’s termination of consultation ended hope of ‘good faith’ negotiations from the Navy

The Sound Defense Alliance (SDA) is a new regional voice working to reduce or minimize the proposed massive military noise increase over Puget Sound. “We look forward to continuing to work with the Governor and our Congressional delegation to stand up for the citizens and communities of Washington, said Lori Taylor a member of the Sound Defense Alliance. Ms. Attwood, concluded, “we are grateful for the support so far as we stand together to say that our communities are not for sale.”

For more about the #NoNewJetsNoNewFlights campaign: sounddefensealliance.org.

Navy’s Operational Impact Assessment