Might Whidbey's Growlers go to California?

The U.S. Navy has until May 1 to present a new environmental impact statement on effects of noise from the EA-18G Growler jets based at Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

U.S. District Court Judge Richard Jones set the deadline in his Aug. 16 ruling and termed the Navy's failings serious violations of the National Environmental Policy Act requiring a new EIS.

He noted, "[T]his Court found that the Navy 'selected methods of evaluating data that supported its goal of increasing Growler operations' and 'turned a blind eye to data that would not support this intended result.'"

Jones' order was on a motion by Citizens of Ebey's Reserve and Washington's attorney general to include specific requirements be added to his September 2023 decision that the Navy must prepare a new EIS for its expanded Growler operations at NAS Whidbey. The Court in 2021 had ruled against the Navy on four counts and ordered the plaintiffs and the Navy to negotiate interim remedies to be in effect until a revised EIS was put in place after COER and the state sued the Navy over its failure to meet the requirements of the NEPA.

One option for alleviating the noise appears to be moving the jets to California.

The order, "in part, requires the U.S. Navy to study changing Boeing EA-18G Growler operations from NAS Whidbey Island in Washington State to Southern California's NAF El Centro."

Jones did reject a key COER argument when it offered "new data and information showing that reversion to the prior practice allocations between Ault Field in Oak Harbor and the Outlying Field would reduce the impacts on civilians while the overall number of training operations would stay the same,"

In denying the request, Jones ruled that the court would not second-guess senior military officials' professional judgments and that "this 'not-in-my-backyard' approach subverts the public interest by proposing shifting noise to another, more populated community."

The Navy League of Oak Harbor in a press release noted this challenges "nearly all of the activists' primary goals."

"In other words, the court rejected the proposition that the activists knew better than the Navy about the importance of the Growler and OLF Coupeville," the Navy League stated.

In its press release, COER's chairperson, Bob Wilbur, said the group may appeal the decision regarding deference to military expertise. "That rationale places an impossible burden on the plaintiffs that can never be overcome because whatever the military says goes," he said.