A citizens’ group that filed a lawsuit in 2013 has filed an additional action to force the Navy to stop flying the EA-18G Growlers over Coupeville.
The Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, or COER, filed a motion Monday in Federal Court asking a judge to rule that the aircraft be forced to stop using Outlying Field Coupeville until the Navy completes an Environmental Impact Statement.
“The EIS isn’t going to be done until 2017,” said COER board member and attorney Ken Pickard Tuesday. “We’re being irreparably injured every time they fly. We’re not going to wait.”
The Navy cannot comment on ongoing litigation, said Mike Welding, the base’s public information officer.
The Motion for Preliminary Injunction was filed in the United States District Court, Western District in Seattle. While Growlers fly at both the Navy’s main Ault Field and OLF Coupeville, the citizen group’s main complaint is with the Field Carrier Operations, or touch-and-go practices, in Coupeville.
COER members said they are concerned about homes, businesses and organizations that lie in the flight path of OLF Coupeville.
“While the Navy will assert that FCLP training at the OLF is in the public interest, invoking national security, the use of Ault Field serves the public interest far better than use of OLF Coupeville,” according to the motion.
“Use of OLF Coupeville compromises the visual and auditory integrity of a national historic reserve and the tranquility and safety of an entire community with homes, schools, parks, and important public and private facilities, including a hospital, local government, law enforcement and commercial development.”
While the Navy is always looking to balance real-life training with simulation and other locations, ceasing use of OLF is “unrealistic,” said Butch Bailey, former Wing 10 commander and president of the local Navy League.
“From a national security standpoint, right now that has to be done,” Bailey said. “OLF is uniquely set up in order to provide that kind of training.”
Bailey said that, during his command during Desert Storm, the Navy exceeded 30,000 operations annually at OLF but has since brought that number down to 6,120 annually in 2005.
The Navy exceeded this operational cap in 2011-13, however.
“The Navy has been a good partner and a good citizen over the years, and the idea that the Navy would go away and not use Coupeville, it’s unrealistic,” Bailey said.
In a press release Monday, COER responded to Navy “personnel and retirees who have frequently called those affected citizens unpatriotic.”
“It’s quite the opposite,” Pickard said. “We all care deeply.”
In recent years, COER has expanded its original mission to close OLF and has stated its larger goal is to get the Growler removed from the Pacific Northwest.
Pickard said Monday’s motion was simply one of many fronts on which the group is fighting.
“We think the Growler is a very poor fit for Northwest Washington,” Pickard said. “It’s one of the many things we’re doing. And it’s a major one. It’s what got our group started.”
In its motion, COER claims the jet noise is damaging the physical and mental health of those working and living under the flight path.
The anti-noise group has also collected a number of first-person “declarations” on its website from people who describe the jets’ effects.
“We are extremely disappointed with our elected officials who won’t speak out on behalf of those they purport to represent,” said COER board member Maryon Attwood.
Navy Admiral Bill Gortney, in his official capacity as the commander, Fleet Forces Command, and Commander Mike Nortier, in his official capacity as commander of Whidbey Island Naval Air Station, are identified as defendants in the lawsuit.
