PORT ANGELES — The U.S. Forest Service will extend the comment period into November over a special-use road permit for the Navy’s proposed electronic warfare training project.
Dean Millett, district ranger for the Forest Service Pacific District, announced the change Thursday.
Millett said the deadline for comments will be moved from today to an as-yet-undetermined date in November due to a forum on the project that will include Navy personnel at 6 p.m. next Thursday in Port Angeles City Council chambers at City Hall, 321 E. Fifth St.
“We will extend it at least past that meeting date for a reasonable period and may go to the end of the month,” Millett said.
Millett said the Forest Service has received “several hundred” comments about the project, in which aircraft from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island would conduct aerial electronic warfare training along the Pacific Coast and on the West End.
The Forest Service permit would allow Navy access for three camper-sized mobile emitters that would be located among 15 sites on Forest Service roads in Clallam and Jefferson counties and Grays Harbor County.
A fourth emitter would be at a fixed site at the Navy base at Pacific Beach.
Residents within the project area have expressed concerns over the electromagnetic radiation that would be generated by the emitters.
The environmental assessment for the project, which found no significant impact, can be seen at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-Electrowarfare.
Public comments can be emailed to Forest Service environmental coordinator Greg Wahl at gtwahl@fs.fed.us or sent to Wahl at 1835 Black Lake Blvd. S.W., Olympia, WA 98512.