Today is the last day to submit comments on the Supplement to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) regarding the proposed Trident Naval Base Explosive Handling Wharf (EHW). We hope to stop this unnecessary and wasteful project. You can submit your comments directly at the Navy's Website at www.nbkeis.com/EHW. If you submitted comments on the previous DEIS you can resubmit those comments or add additional comments.
If you need help writing you own comments, here is what Anabel Dwyer submitted:
The Supplement to the Draft EIS regarding the proposed Trident Naval Base Explosive Handling Wharf (EHW) ignores central comments made on the inadequate scope of the Draft EIS. These comments pointed out the known and intended catastrophic environmental consequences of any accidental or purposeful detonation of the Trident nuclear weapon nuclear or conventional explosives.
The Trident nuclear weapons system including supporting operations such as the EHW are intended and known to be active plans, preparations for threat or use of uncontrollable and indiscriminate weapons of mass destruction. As such the Trident nuclear system also violates the fundamental rules and principles of humanitarian law (the laws of war)to which the Navy and the US are bound.
For many reasons these proposed construction projects must be abandoned or at least delayed so that the scope of the EIS can be broadened based on honest assessment of facts and law.
1. The Purposes of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to “encourage productive and enjoyable harmony between man and his environment; to promote efforts which will prevent or eliminate damage to the environment and biosphere and stimulate the health and welfare of man” (Sec. 2 [42 USC § 4321]) cannot be met by an EIS or Supplemental EIS which ignores the grave and catastrophic environmental impact of accidental or purposeful detonation of the Trident nuclear and conventional explosives.
2. The EHW can not at once “prevent damage to the environment and stimulate the health and welfare of man” and at the same time meet the “requirements” of the current and future Trident Ballistic Missile program. The Trident and the EHW are for maintaining active preparations and “exercises” to eliminate tens of millions of people and destroy the ecosystem of the planet.
3. Constant threat, preparation for nuclear annihilation is well understood to be environmentally, legally and morally unacceptable and untenable. The Trident nuclear weapons program can no longer be glossed over or justified as needed or usable for any “strategic deterrent mission.”
4. The accidental or purposeful detonation of even one of the 4 100 kiloton W-76 nuclear warheads on each of the 24 D-5 missiles on each of the 8 Trident submarines operating in and from the Kitsap-Bangor Naval Base is known and intended to unleash vast heat, blast and radiation at least 7 times that of the Hiroshima bomb.
5. The heat, blast and radiation of even one of the W-76 warheads are uncontrollable and indiscriminate in space or time.
6. The Trident is in plain language a grotesque weapon of mass destruction that violates the Navy’s absolute prohibition against weapons that are incapable of distinguishing between civilian and military targets.
7. Because of the extreme danger of nuclear weapons to our common environment and life on this planet, the United States and all other countries have a legal obligation to “pursue in good faith and bring to a conclusion negotiations leading to nuclear disarmament in all its aspects.”
For these reasons among many others we ask you to further extend the scope of your EIS and call hearings on these central and now well understood issues.
Here are a few additional points you can bring up as well:
In its environmental assessment, the Navy stated the 1,250 to 1,500 pilings for the wharf and overwater structure will cause "insignificant" cumulative impacts to Hood Canal. The Navy has not adequately addressed the impacts of the pilings.
One of the four added buildings to the proposed second Explosives Handling Wharf is a new pure water facility for the submarines that covers approximately 0.5 acres along the shoreline of Hood Canal. There is minimal information on this or any other of the new proposed buildings.
The Navy continues to ignore the significant environmental effects of a detonation of the conventional fuel and the possible radioactive contamination (plutonium!!!) that could result due to a missile handling accident. An major incident on November 7, 2004 at Bangor that involved a ladder penetrating a nose cone of a Trident missile, coming within inches of a warhead is a graphic example of this unaddressed envioronmental hazard.
The Navy has acknowledged that it has loaded Trident submarines at the Bangor submarine base for nearly 30 years with the existing wharf. It now claims that it needs the wharf for the so-called Life Extension Program for the Trident D-5 missile. The Navy has stated that in the future, it will need twice the number of "operational days" to handle its 130,000-pound missiles as it does now. Based on the current reduced number of warheads deployed on Trident D-5 missiles (4 versus the previous 8) coupled with the Navy's plans for a replacement ballistic missile submarine the will carry fewer missiles, there is absolutely no need for a replacement wharf based on this rationale.
Submit your comments directly at the Navy's Website at www.nbkeis.com/EHW.
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