WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks says a Navy response to Port Townsend and Jefferson County officials about an environmental-impact study they want on changes to Naval Magazine Indian Island is “imminent.
The Belfair Democrat and member of the House Committee on Homeland Security said he toured the Indian Island ordnance station last week to get a better feel for future proposals.
Plans include extending the security zone around the 1,500-foot munitions loading pier and building three new Tomahawk missile magazines to support incoming submarines.
Dicks said following the tour that he urged Navy Region Northwest officials to better communicate plans to concerned residents in the Port Townsend-Jefferson County community who see the Navy’s actions at Indian Island as expansion.
“I do think that it would be wise for the Navy to hold forums in Port Townsend,” Dicks said.
“It would be good for the Navy to explain what it’s doing.”
Dicks declined to comment on his views about an environmental-impact study at the Naval Magazine, the largest munitions depot on the West Coast.
He said he was withholding comment until after the City Council and county commissioners receive responses from Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter.
Council members and county commissioners sent a letter to Winter in September, asking for the study under the National Environmental Policy Act.
Mission unchanged
Navy officials have said their position remains the same: The mission at Indian Island has not changed.
And Dicks defended the Navy’s efforts.
“I will say that everything that they’re doing up there is to make the base safer,” Dicks said.
“I hope that people will take that into account.
“It is intended to make it as safe as possible to avoid a terrorist attack.”
In a recent notice in the Federal Register, the Navy said more security was needed to prevent accidents, “sabotage and other subversive acts,” as well as “to protect the public from potentially hazardous conditions.”
Dicks, a 31-year congressman whose 6th District includes Jefferson and Clallam counties, is a member of three key appropriations subcommittees — Defense, Interior and Environment, and Military Construction/Veterans Administration.
On the House Committee on Homeland Security, he serves on two subcommittees: Intelligence, Information Sharing & Terrorism Risk Assessment and Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response.
The Navy has proposed spending $20 million to upgrade three magazines at the Naval Magazine in 2010 to serve incoming submarines, each converted from nuclear Trident missile carriers to carrying 154 conventional Tomahawk cruise missiles.
In a separate action, the Navy is also proposing to increase the security zone from 500 yards to 1,000 yards around its munitions pier where in the past week the Everett-based aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln moored.
Submarine operations
The Navy announced in late 2005 that at least two of four converted guided missile/special operations submarines would use Naval Magazine Indian Island in the future to load and unload non-nuclear weapons and take care of minor maintenance.
The 2,716-acre Naval Magazine, fenced and guarded by civilian and military security forces on Indian Island handles non-nuclear bombs, missiles, bullets, torpedoes, shells and other ordnance.
The 4.5-mile-long base is west of Marrowstone Island between the waters of Port Townsend and Kilisut Harbor.
Most of the weapons come by truck and are kept for only a short time at the base before being loaded onto ships, Naval Magazine officials have said.
The Navy also wants to increase its coastal operations to lengthen its Hood Canal, Keyport and Quinault test ranges, Navy officials have said.
Specifics about the increased activity have yet to be released for security reasons, but Navy Region Northwest spokeswoman Sheila Murray said it will bring more air, surface and underwater vessel traffic, as well as testing of underwater weapons, unmanned aerial and submersible vehicles and high-frequency sonar.
Range expansion
Navy maps indicate the range around Keyport, on the Kitsap Peninsula, could double in size, extending from Liberty Bay near Poulsbo to Bainbridge Island.
In Hood Canal, the Dabob Bay range would be extended to twice its size, stretching from the floating bridge near the mouth of waterway south of Brinnon to near Lilliwaup.
Grays Harbor’s Quinault Range would be greatly expanded, almost 50 miles into the Pacific along the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
Extending the inland and coastal ranges will allow the Navy to close larger portions of open waters to civilian watercraft when necessary.
Currently, the Navy reports, the Quinault Range is closed up to 15 days while sections of Keyport and Hood Canal are closed up to 60 and 130 days, respectively.
Also reportedly on the security-zone expansion list are the Navy’s Manchester (Kitsap County) Fuel Depot, the Bremerton Navy Yard, Whidbey Island and the Bangor submarine base on Hood Canal — where the Navy has also proposed using trained dolphins and sea lions to patrol a security perimeter and intercept boaters and swimmers.
Training expansion
The Navy is eyeing Hood Canal, Puget Sound and the Washington coast for a significant expansion of testing and training exercises, including underwater weapons research and high-frequency sonar.
The Navy wants to increase the level of activity inside the Northwest Training Range Complex, a 126,000-square-mile test range stretching from Neah Bay to Northern California.
The range extends 288 miles out from the coast into the Pacific Ocean, and part of it includes the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
The Navy is preparing a federally required study and environmental-impact statement to evaluate the potential effects associated with expanding activities within the range.
The range’s size wouldn’t change.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
