Keys congressman gets Navy meeting over jet noise

U.S. Rep. Joe Garcia, a Democrat who represents the Keys, has secured a meeting with Monroe County officials and Dennis McGinn, assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy for energy, installations and environment.

The topic of the Oct. 3 session in Washington, D.C., is a Navy environmental impact statement that, if approved by Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus, would allow increased flight and training operations out of Naval Air Station Key West's Boca Chica Field.

Also outlined in the pending final EIS is permission to replace F-18 Super Hornet jet fighters with the newer F-22 Lightnings.

"I think that Monroe County's representative was able to get a meeting in D.C. is pretty significant," said Lower Keys resident Don Riggs, a member of the county's advisory EIS committee.

Riggs said Monroe County would be represented at the meeting by Mike Davis and John Abbot of Doral-based consulting firm Keith and Schnars, which the county contracted to help analyze the voluminous EIS. Davis is vice president and director of planning; Abbott is director of environmental science and water resources planning.

The county's primary concerns with increased flight operations out of Boca Chica revolve around impacts on surrounding homeowners subject to jet noise as visiting jet squadrons practice carrier take-offs and landings.

Navy officials considered four options for upgrading NAS operations, one of those being no action. They selected an alternative that would increase the number of flight operations out of Boca Chica from 47,500 annually up to 52,000. A take-off and landing are considered individual flight operations.

The NAS Key West-specific EIS is not to be confused with the final Atlantic Fleet Training and Testing EIS, which governs future operational capabilities in more than 2.6 million square miles of the Atlantic Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

That report was released earlier this month and was also the subject of extensive local vetting and comment. Garcia's staff did not provide comment by press time on Friday.

Original article:   http://www.keysnet.com