“Motorists of Highway 525 last weekend were confronted with a huge banner in front of Lake Hancock, proclaiming Rare Marsh Contaminated. It was part of Tony Franz’ campaign to start a clean-up project in the Navy-owned estuary.Tony Frantz used two boom trucks and a huge banner to escalate his campaign to clean up Navy-owned Lake Hancock in Greenbank.Rare Marsh Contaminated, stated the banner, which Frantz strung between two of his heavy pieces of equipment, a crawler crane and an old telephone company boom truck. He uses the equipment in his bulkhead business.Labor Day weekend motorists on Highway 525 slowed to read the banner, causing minor congestion at times along the highway. It apparently achieved Frantz’ goal of pointing out his concerns to the public.No one can see the problem, Frantz said. The Navy keeps Lake Hancock, a former practice bombing range, fenced off from the public, although a state viewing area above the highway provides a panoramic view of the lake (actually a saltwater estuary), adjoining Admiralty Inlet, and the Olympic Mountains.Initially, the banner was placed on the lake side of the highway, between the Navy fence and the ditch. But Frantz said Navy personnel carrying firearms told him to move the apparatus, so he moved it across the highway to the viewing area. There it stayed until Monday afternoon when he took the banner down.Frantz has visited Lake Hancock for years, either walking the beach or scuba diving. He said the Navy tolerated his presence, but that changed in July when he and several supporters visited the lake and tied red balloons to hundreds of logs soaked in creosote, a dangerous wood preservative, that had washed into the lake over the years. He sees the old logs as a threat to marine life and wants them removed, using his own expertise and equipment if necessary.Navy Ecologist John Phillips has visited the site with state Department of Ecology officials and Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife biologists. While the DOE expressed general support for Frantz’ desire to remove the logs, his support from the Fish & Wildlife biologists is more enthusiastic. Phillips has not returned several phone calls from The South Whidbey Record.Julie Klacan, area habitat biologist for Fish & Wildlife, this week described Frantz’ clean-up drive as a wonderful idea.However, Klacan wondered if Frantz’ tactics, such as trespassing for the red balloon display and the banner episode, is the best way to approach the Navy. He’s a good person, but it doesn’t really bend the Navy to his point of view, she said.Frantz said he’s now following all the laws, and he promised the Navy I would follow all the rules from now on.He didn’t think he was violating any laws last weekend, and resented it when the Navy told him to move. He believed he was on state right-of-way. He may have been right.The Navy acknowledges it asked Frantz to move his banner, but officials were unsure Wednesday if he had actually been trespassing. Kimberly Martin, a public affairs officer with Naval Air Station Whidbey in Oak Harbor, said the Navy once owned all the land in the area, but granted easements to the state Department of Transportation for highway work. We’ve been working on that all day, she said. We’re not sure if he was on government property.Frantz, a military veteran himself, professes a desire to work with the Navy to clean up Lake Hancock, rather than continue to confront the Navy.Both the Navy and Fish and Wildlife are waiting for Frantz to give them something to start working on, specifically a state Hydrology Permit Application (HPA). Martin said the Navy will then comment on the application permit.Klacan said, Mr. Frantz has yet to apply for a HPA for the removal of the creosote treated wood which has accumulated in the Lake Hancock area. Although WDFW may issue an HPA to Mr. Frantz in the future for this project, the HPA will not authorize Mr. Frantz to trespass on Navy property.However, Fish and Wildlife is supportive of Frantz’ efforts. Mr. Frantz’ proposal to remove the creosote treated wood from Lake Hancock would provide a wonderful opportunity for a collaborative effort between federal, state and local jurisdictions and Island County residents to benefit the Lake Hancock estuary, Klacan said.Frantz didn’t realize both agencies were awaiting his application for a hydraulic permit. He said Thursday that he was working on it, and would fax it to Fish & Wildlife that afternoon. “