Newport News (Va.) Daily Press
December 15, 2000
Military Update
Military Sees Environmental Demands Impacting Readiness
By Tom Philpott
At key military training ranges, laws and regulations to mollify local communities and protect the environment are taking a toll on readiness, Pentagon officials contend.
Top military leaders are concerned enough to press federal, state and local agencies routinely to rebalance priorities when the choice comes down to giving troops realistic training or accommodating a rising tide of environmental or encroachment issues. ``We've been able to adjust with compromises and concessions. But over the last couple of years we've just about mitigated all we can,'' said Rear Adm. John Byrd, assistant deputy chief of naval operations for plans, policy and operations, in a recent interview.
``Noise [complaints], assaults on our [radio] frequency spectrums, regulations associated with the environment, such as the Endangered Species Act, the Marine Mammal Protection Act, the Clean Water Act, are causing us to change the way we do business,'' Byrd said. ``We've got to realize environmental protection is not more important than national security.'' Navy officials are not alone in sounding an alarm. Every service has seen a rise in legal and public relation issues over where, when and how they train. ``There are a whole range of encroachment issues that, in their totality, are having a relatively serious impact on our testing and training activities,'' said Thomas K. Longstreth, deputy under secretary of defense for readiness. ``They run the gamut, from compliance with environmental legislation to the impact of urbanization around previously isolated bases and facilities.'' In some locations, radio frequencies that ranges rely on for training instrumentation are being auctioned off to the burgeoning communications industry. Suburbs around cities like Phoenix and Las Vegas are spreading out to previously isolated training areas. ``It's just a number of issues, any one of which has some impact on test and training activities,'' said Longstreth. ``But when you look at them comprehensively, the cumulative impact is even more substantial.'' Until a year ago, the services usually handled such issues through environmental staffs that advise commands on compliance with laws, regulations and local ordinances. But as complaints about the impact on training rose, defense leaders came to recognize the issue as critical to readiness. It is now discussed monthly by service leaders at meetings of the Senior Readiness Oversight Council, chaired by Deputy Defense Secretary Rudy de Leon. Longstreth is SROC's executive secretary. ``We said, `These test and training ranges are essential to national security, to keeping us the best-trained force in the world. How do we sustain them over the next several decades?' So we're putting together plans to address these encroachment issues.'' For the Navy, restoring live-fire training on the Puerto Rican island of Vieques is paramount. Local protesters in 1999 shut down the amphibious training ground, used since World War II, after a stray bomb killed a local security guard. After a year, Atlantic Fleet units resumed training last May but are limited to using inert or ``dummy'' ordnance under a temporary deal between the Clinton administration and Puerto Rico. Whether the sea services ever again conduct live-fire exercises there will be determined by a referendum of Vieques residents next November. Meanwhile, the Navy says it has no training ground to match it. So sailors and Marines deploy to combat areas like the Persian Gulf less than fully prepared. The services argue with environmentalists that they are responsible stewards of natural resources on ranges, to the point that many are now habitats for otherwise endangered species. Ironically, this only brings greater scrutiny and stiffer controls. It happened on Vieques, Byrd said. When the Navy regained limited use of the property, it invited environmental agencies to check its plans. ``They started imposing increased migration measures on us,'' Byrd said. ``For example, they told us how often we can use flares during naval surface gunfire support. Only so many hours a night because the lights affect the turtles. We didn't want them to lose sleep. Seriously.'' Now also, after every attack run, the Navy must inspect impact areas to ensure that turtles haven't crawled or fallen into danger. ``We have to delay the normal sequence of operations to account for these inspections,'' Byrd said. In other training areas, Marines before digging foxholes have to assess how they might injure wildlife. The active sonar of surface ships, conducting choke-point exercises against submarines in certain ocean areas, have been blamed for beached whales.
The Army has pressed for 15 years to expand the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., the only stateside area where it can exercise brigade-size units. When NTC was established in 1981, the Army engaged an enemy to a maximum of 12 miles. Today, it can strike out to 60 miles. It moves tactically at 25 miles an hour versus 10 two decades ago. These changes drive NTC's need for more space. Some environmental groups oppose a compromise expansion plan finally worked out last month between the Army and the Interior Department. It will endanger the desert tortoise, a plant called the Lane Mountain milk vetch and other species, they argue. Bill Broyles, a more moderate environmentalist, is familiar with encroachment pressures at the Goldwater Air Force Range, 4100 acres between exploding populations of Yuma and Phoenix, Ariz. He said the Air Force and Marine Corps have been good stewards.
``But I don't think in America, given the number of people we have, that you ever again are going to have a blank spot on the map where you can do anything and everything you want,'' Broyles said. ``That's their dilemma.'' But protecting the environment can't be the top priority, said Byrd. ``It's our sons and daughters we're putting in harms way,'' he said, ``and their lives are at least as important as the snail darter.'' |
