La Conner Weekly News - Your independent hometown award-winning newspaper

Naval Air Station Whidbey came into existence during World War II, and in the seventy years since, local communities have partnered with the U.S. Navy to protect our national security. Naval personnel, active and retired, have always been welcomed here for their contributions to the region’s civic and economic life.

The Navy’s role as a good neighbor has come to an end, however, as more and more people become, in military terms, “collateral damage.” Since the Navy’s introduction of the F-18 Growler, these jets roar overhead day and night, making it difficult for many to sleep, work, study or even, at times, to conduct a conversation. And, among other problems, fire-fighting foam used by the Navy has seeped into groundwater on north Whidbey, polluting wells and endangering the drinking water of local communities.

If all this weren’t enough, the Navy now intends to double and triple down on the number of Growlers at the station.

In its environmental impact statement (EIS) released last September, the Navy revealed plans for the addition of 36 new planes and a four-fold increase in Growler flights over Central Whidbey.

If the Navy’s plans are approved, the dangerously undersized WWII era Outlying Field (OLF) south of Coupeville will handle twenty-four thousand landings and takeoffs a year, up from six-thousand presently.

Homes, businesses and schools under the flight paths will be subject to more disruption, falling property values and an increased risk of accidents.

The addition of hundreds more Navy personnel will also exacerbate the region’s acute shortage of affordable housing.

And, as anyone living in LaConner and vicinity knows, these issues affect us as well. Jets taking off from Whidbey are over our heads in less than a minute, and are a threat to tourism, La Conner’s lifeblood. Campers leave Deception Pass State Park in droves on summer weekends, unable to tolerate noise which sometimes reaches one hundred and fifteen decibels, a level that can cause long-term hearing damage. Outdoor recreation brings in twenty-one billion dollars in Washington State, compared to fifteen-billion for all military and defense industries, and future planning for the whole area needs to take this fact into account.

All of us recognize the need for national defense. None of us want the Navy to just go away, but its leaders need to recognize that its planned reckless expansion of the naval air station without meaningful input from its neighbors will ultimately put its own mission at risk.

A new documentary film, “Plane Truths,” takes a look at the issues facing the air station and its neighbors. It will be shown Friday, 7 p.m. at the United Methodist Church in La Conner, 601 2nd. Street. A discussion with the filmmakers will follow, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Tony Harrah has lived within the boundary of the Swinomish Reservation for the past 15 years. His activism includes being on the board of Moving Images Video Project, producers of the documentary “Plane Truths” since its inception in 1987. He has been an environmental and labor activist throughout his adult life.