U.S. House votes to de-authorize Navy OLF site in NC

Legislation passed this afternoon by the U.S. House of Representatives does not include authorization for the Navy to pursue building a proposed jet landing field at its preferred site Washington County, North Carolina. That authorization was removed from the bill in the Armed Services Committee last week. The full House voted 397-27 to pass the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008.

"This is tremendous news for the growing number of people who understand the utter folly of putting a military jet landing strip smack dab in the middle of the core habitat for more than a million large birds," said SELC Senior Attorney Michelle Nowlin.

In the last couple of months, North Carolina's top officials have come out against the Navy's preferred site for an outlying landing field (OLF) in Washington County: Sen. Elizabeth Dole, Sen. Richard Burr, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (1st District, NC) whose district includes the OLF site, a majority of the state's congressional delegation, Governor Mike Easley, numerous state agency heads and the state Senate and House leadership. All are strongly opposed to the Navy's preferred site, located within a few miles of the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, designated specifically to harbor migrating flocks of tundra swans, snow geese, and ducks. The area is also habitat for the world's only wild population of red wolf.

"As today's vote shows, this is not a North Carolina issue - it's a national issue. This is the House of Representatives telling the Navy it can't run roughshod over Congress, which established the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge to be just that - a refuge for wildlife," Nowlin said. Further, the project would put Navy pilots at unacceptable risk, and displace numerous family farmers in the area, Nowlin said.

"The ball is rolling faster now. We call on the Navy to respond to this outpouring of opposition by withdrawing this site from further consideration," she said.