Opinion ID: 4181297
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Navy’s Proposed Wharf

Text: Bangor, Washington, is home to Naval Base Kitsap (“Kitsap”), the Navy’s main operating hub for the Pacific fleet of its TRIDENT submarine program. TRIDENT submarines, armed with nuclear missiles, are brought to Naval Base Kitsap for, among other things, maintenance of those missiles. The base has an Explosives Handling Wharf (“EHW” or “EHW-1”) where such maintenance is performed. During the 1990s, the Navy began upgrading the missiles used on the TRIDENT submarines. These upgraded missiles require increased maintenance and will require even more frequent maintenance as they age. The Navy estimates that its increased maintenance projects at Kitsap will need 400 “operational days” per year, meaning capacity to perform 400 days’ worth of maintenance sessions in a year. The existing EHW at Kitsap cannot support those needs. In general, the present EHW can provide 300 operational days per year; in some years, due to the need for upkeep on the wharf, it is usable for fewer than 250 operating days. The Navy decided that it therefore needed to increase its operational capacity for missile maintenance at Kitsap. It began considering the possibility of building a second Explosives Handling Wharf (“EHW-2”). To comply with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (“NEPA”), 42 U.S.C. § 4321 et seq., the Navy prepared and published an EIS, which described the proposal and its projected environmental impacts. 6 GROUND ZERO CENTER V. U.S. DEP’T OF THE NAVY The EIS primarily discussed environmental impacts arising during the construction of EHW-2, as well as the effect the completed structure and its regular operations would have on the environment. Several alternatives were considered in depth, all of which (with the exception of “no action”) involved constructing a second wharf adjacent to the first. The alternatives varied in their structural details—for example, in the size of the support piles on which they would rest—but not in location. According to the Navy, there were no other viable sites for the proposed wharf because of the function the wharf serves. It must be built in water deep enough to allow submarines to operate, but not so deep as to make construction of the wharf infeasible. In addition to considerations of ocean depth, the EIS made numerous references to constraints on site selection imposed by the need to handle explosive materials safely. It mentioned that a particular alternative site had been considered but rejected because it would not comply with requirements established by the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (“Safety Board”) and the Naval Ordnance Safety and Security Activity (“NOSSA”), which issue and implement safety guidelines surrounding the proper handling of explosives. The EIS also referred to a potential plan for a shore-based terminal, rejected for the same reason. In addition, the EIS explained, to comply with Safety Board and NOSSA “requirements to protect buildings located in the vicinity of explosives handling operations,” the construction of EHW-2 would involve the demolition or modification of more than a dozen facilities or structures near the proposed site. Noting that “[a]ll facilities constructed at the Bangor waterfront must comply with [Safety Board] and NOSSA requirements regarding explosives safety GROUND ZERO CENTER V. U.S. DEP’T OF THE NAVY 7 restrictions,” the EIS characterized the proposed location for EHW-2 as “the only available location along the Bangor waterfront that ensures designated restricted areas remain within Navy property boundaries and required separation distances between facilities are maintained.” In a section labeled “Public Health and Safety,” the Navy reported that the existing EHW has “operated safely for over 30 years,” and that “[o]perations at the EHW-2 would be no different from operations at the existing EHW.” The section concluded that “there would be no resulting impact to public health or safety” from the proposed development of EHW-2, as there would be “[n]o increased danger or change from current safe operations.” At several points, the EIS referenced appendices. Three of these appendices were redacted in their entirety in the publicly released version of the EIS. According to the EIS’s references and the appendices’ titles, Appendix A contained supplemental information describing the purpose and need for the project, Appendix B contained additional information regarding alternatives to EHW-2 that the Navy had considered, and Appendix C contained information regarding the distance “within which activities and facilities are restricted to assure protection to life and property in the event of an accident,” which is referred to as an “[e]xplosives [s]afety [a]rc.” The EIS stated that these appendices had been redacted because they contained Unclassified Controlled Nuclear Information (“UCNI”) the Navy deemed unfit for public dissemination.1 1 Title 10 U.S.C. § 128(a) permits the Secretary of Defense to order that certain information relating to nuclear material be withheld from public disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 8 GROUND ZERO CENTER V. U.S. DEP’T OF THE NAVY After going through a public comment period and issuing a final EIS, the Navy issued a Record of Decision announcing that it had decided to implement one of the proposed EHW-2 construction plans. The EHW-2 plan selected would be adjacent to EHW-1 and would provide 300 operational days for missile maintenance every year. Combined with the operational days available at EHW-1, the 300 additional operational days permitted by EHW-2 would be more than sufficient for the TRIDENT program’s needs.