Burr opposes site for Navy field

Senator joins foes of a runway in Beaufort and Washington counties

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr came out Monday against the Navy's plan to build a jet runway near a national wildlife refuge in Eastern North Carolina, calling the plan "an untenable proposition."

In making the stand, Burr joined growing bipartisan opposition to the Navy's plan for a practice airstrip in Washington and Beaufort counties, putting the project's future in doubt.

Burr's letter follows recent statements by Democratic Gov. Mike Easley decrying the Navy's choice of sites and demanding that Congress withhold $10 million for the project. U.S. Reps. Walter Jones and Robin Hayes, both Republicans, wrote letters of opposition, joining several Democratic congressman.

And last week, fellow U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole sent a letter questioning the Navy about its choice of sites. She expressed concern, but did not say whether she was for or against it.

"Sen. Dole continues to be deeply concerned about the Navy's proposed OLF," Katie Norman, a spokeswoman for Dole, said Monday in reference to the so-called Outlying Landing Field. "She's pressing the Navy on a number of issues. She will carefully evaluate how the Navy responds as she makes her conclusions about the issue."

Burr, who has for years declined to announce his position on the Navy's plan to build the runway for pilot training, sent the secretary of the Navy a letter outlining numerous concerns. He noted harm to the nearby refuge, economic impact on area farmers whose land would be confiscated and the risk posed to pilots.

"It is clear to me that there is insurmountable and growing opposition to the Washington County site, which compels me to reject [it] as the Navy's preferred location," Burr, a Republican, wrote in the letter.

A spokesman for the Navy declined to comment on Burr's letter, saying officials had not reviewed it.

Courts delay project

The Navy has begun assembling 30,000 acres in Washington and Beaufort counties to build a $231 million airstrip where pilots could practice night landings on carriers. The project has been held up because federal courts agreed with environmental groups that the Navy had not adequately considered the environmental harm that the airstrip could cause.

The Navy's preferred site is about five miles from the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, which attracts about 100,000 migratory waterfowl each winter, including flocks of tundra swan and snow geese. Military bird-strike experts have said that for six months every year there would be a high risk that bird and aircraft would collide.

Squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornets based at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia and at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point near Havelock would use the runway.

Burr said the safety of Navy pilots had been overlooked in the haste to build the airstrip. He said he had hoped the Navy and the state of North Carolina could reach an agreement on a site, but "a solution was as far from being reached today as it ever has been."

Derb Carter, director of the Southern Environmental Law Center's Chapel Hill Office, which has represented environmental groups in challenging the Navy's plans, said the ground was shifting.

"The Navy's difficulties are becoming more and more insurmountable," Carter said. "It's not over until it's over. But the letters from Sens. Burr and Dole greatly diminish the Navy's chances to construct a landing field at the Washington County site."

Carter said the opponents felt good about their chances of getting the House to withhold funding. He said Burr's letter improved the chances of similar action in the Senate.

Opposition to the site has been building steadily among the state's politicians, environmentalists and general public. Last month, the head of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service visited the refuge and said the landing field was in direct conflict with the mission of the wildlife sanctuary.

The Navy is holding hearings and gathering public comments on its environmental study. It is expected to finish the follow-up study in the fall, then issue a site decision in late 2007.