Editor,
A July 30 Whidbey News-Times letter to the editor by Scott Smith claims Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve “twisted the truth” when it quoted a Navy document indicating El Centro was superior to both Ault Field and the OLF Coupeville for carrier landing practice.
Smith claims this quote somehow related to WISE and base closures in the 1990s. Had he actually looked at the document, he would know it is from 2017 and has nothing to do with either.
To be absolutely clear, despite Scott’s false narrative, neither COER nor the Sound Defense Alliance has ever advocated closing Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.
Smith also challenges COER’s contention that money was behind moving Growler practice from El Centro to Whidbey.
Smith asserts that COER was “100 percent wrong.” Yet that same 2017 Navy document validates COER’s contention: “Increasing budgetary pressures in the mid-2000s reduced the availability of resources, i.e., flying hours, travel funds, manpower and aircraft, causing gradual drawdown of production detachments to NAF El Centro and steady increase in the percentage of field carrier landing practices conducted at Coupeville from approximately 2008 to 2013.”
Smith next argues that COER was wrong about local residents’ interest in having additional jets based at El Centro.
To see how mistaken Scott is about that you need only read the numerous online records revealing the Imperial Valley’s strong desire to home-base the Navy’s F-35s at El Centro.
Finally, according to Smith, the impacted population at El Centro would be “20 times” that of the OLF Coupeville. But that’s also patently not true.
EPA records indicate the local population impacted would have been “in the hundreds” had the F-35s been based in El Centro. Conversely, the NASWI EIS (Table 4.3-3) projects approximately 12,500 Whidbey residents being impacted at 65 dB and higher noise levels.
COER would argue that number is low, but using the Navy’s number around 20 times more Whidbey residents are being impacted than would have been at El Centro.
Looks like Smith got confused and mixed up our two communities.
Given his poor grasp of the facts, any prediction Smith makes is clearly suspect. One thing we can say for sure however, COER will never give up the fight to move the Growlers somewhere they won’t have the negative impacts on health and our environment that they do here.
Paula Spina
COER Board
Coupeville
