Staff report

POULSBO – A Navy spokesman says a plan to use beaches, marinas and parks in the Puget Sound region, including Poulsbo, for special warfare training is only proposed, and that the public will be engaged “at the appropriate time” before any plan is implemented.

“Naval Special Warfare has trained in the Pacific Northwest for over 30 years. We have a longstanding relationship with local officials and coordinate routinely with military and civil authorities to gain approval,” said Lt. Cmdr. Mark Walton, USN, a spokesman for Naval Special Warfare Group Three.

“The environmental assessment process for the Naval Proposed Special Warfare Training has begun and it’s in the early stages of development. The Navy is currently reviewing potential environmental, cultural and historic impacts of the type and frequency of training being requested. Subsequent stages include plans to engage the public at the appropriate time. No decisions have been made for this proposal.”

And training outlined in the proposal won’t begin Jan. 14 as suggested by a news story published on Truthout.org, a Navy spokeswoman said.

“As far as I know, everything is in the very, very beginning planning stages, period,” Navy Region Northwest spokeswoman Sheila Murray said Jan. 12. “There has been no decision made on anything. Everything is speculation at this point.”

But the scope of the proposal – as outlined in unclassified Navy documents published by Truthout – has some local organizations concerned.

The documents, “Proposed NSW Training Within the Pacific North West,” by deputy facilities director Margherita Parrent of Naval Special Warfare Group Three, identifies 68 potential Navy SEAL training sites in Puget Sound, the Strait of Juan de Fuca and on the Washington coast, including Kitsap and Island counties — with most to be used two to eight times annually.

A training request specific to fiscal year 2016 listed 28 sites, including Naval Base Kitsap Bangor, Naval Undersea Warfare Center Keyport, Bremerton Shipyard, Bremerton Marina, USS Turner Joy Museum, Kitsap Lake, Port Madison Bay, Fletcher Bay, Manzanita Bay, Point Monroe, Brownsville Marina, Liberty Bay Marina, Scenic Beach State Park, Fisherman Harbor, Oyster Bay, Seabeck Elementary School, and Illahee State Park.

According to the fiscal year 2016 document, one training cycle would be from mid-January to mid-February 2016 and the second from mid-February through mid-April 2016.

The sites would be used for combat swimmer training; actions using simulated weapons; insertion and extraction of people; launch and recovery; and beach landing. According to the Navy document, no live ammunition would be used, training would range between two and 72 hours, no property damage would occur, and instructors and support staff would conduct cleanup. Up to 10 personnel would be responsible for the safety and oversight of personnel conducting training. A buffer would prevent bystanders from entering into areas while training is going on.

The 2016 document notes the level of training proposed at each site, the local point of contact, and whether a memorandum and/or license of agreement has been obtained. It also states that the point of contact will be notified 24 hours prior to any training.

Environmental activist Connie Gallant of Quilcene, president of the board of the Olympic Forest Coalition, likened the proposal to the Navy’s planned expansion of electronic warfare range activities over the Olympic Peninsula and noise-generating Navy jet flights emanating from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island.

“It really is all kind of connected,” she said.

“The Navy has tried to segment and say, ‘Oh, this is Phase 1 and this is another phase,’ but when you put it all together, everything is a whole and everything is affected,” Gallant said. “We have no objection to training activities, but in areas that are targeted and have been set aside for recreation activities for the public, we just don’t believe they should be happening in such areas.”

A watchdog group, the West Coast Action Alliance, issued a statement in response to the Truthout article. Lacking environmental review, the group is considered about measures “to ensure public safety and protect cultural and historic properties, wildlife, and habitat.” The group states that “periodically closing dozens of public areas without due process is neither ethical nor legal.”

The group added, “The West Coast Action Alliance supports training our military. What we object to is doing it in the places where we live, work and recreate, and without our informed consent … [The] military is steadily moving off the millions of acres of land the public has already provided for it to train, in order to practice warfare among us, the very citizens it is supposed to protect.”

Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson said she is not aware of “any outreach” by the Navy at this point to do training on Poulsbo’s shores, but said the city’s relationship with the Navy “has been really actually superb.”

“We share Liberty Bay with (Naval Undersea Warfare Center) Keyport. They’ve always been very responsible and very respectful. They’re a good partner in North Kitsap.”

She said she hoped the Navy would engage with the public in advance of any training “if for any other reason than public safety concerns and to keep public from being alarmed. We live in a harsh world right now.”

Walton said the Navy “typically puts out a public notice that military training is being conducted” and work with local authorities. “We’re very responsible about public safety and about environmental concerns.” He said all training is done in accordance with local, state and federal laws.

Barry Berezowsky, planning and economic development director for the City of Poulsbo, said the Navy has worked with the city in the past, going through the local process to obtain permits to place data-collection buoys in the bay. But the Navy has not contacted the city about the possibility of using Liberty Bay or other waters near the city for SEAL training.

Berezowsky said unless there are plans to erect permanent structures, the Navy wouldn’t need city permits to train.

“It depends on what it is that the Navy is going to do,” he said. “The nature of SEALs training is water-dependent and under the shoreline plan, that’s a permitted use. If they are going to add structures, then that’s another matter.”

Any security for Navy training exercises would be provided by the Navy, Berezowsky said.

Police sources said Jan. 13 that there has been no recent contact from the Navy with regard to training in the area, but said there have been “operations in the bay periodically in the past.”

View the Navy documents at http://tinyurl.com/PDN-navyseals.

– With reporting by Paul Gottlieb of the Peninsula Daily News, Richard Walker of the North Kitsap Herald and Leslie Kelly of Sound Publishing in Kitsap.