Navy to Hold OLF Public Hearings

The Navy will host six public hearings on its plan to build an outlying anding field in eastern North Carolina.

Each scheduled public hearing will be preceded by an open information session to allow interested individuals to review the plan. Navy representatives will be available during the information sessions.

Each information session will occur from 4:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., followed by the formal public hearing from 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Those wishing to speak at the public hearing should arrive early to sign up. Speakers will be heard on a first come first served basis.

Environmentalists say the Navy has ignored the dangers of putting jet aircraft in the same airspace with thousands of waterfowl that spend the winter at Pocosin Lakes Wildlife Refuge. The area also supports a growing population of endangered red wolves.

The Navy favors the site in Washington and Beaufort counties that's about five miles from the refuge because it's close to both Oceana Naval Air Station in Virginia and Cherry Point Marine Corps Air Station in Havelock, where squadrons of Super Hornet fighter jets would be based.

Pilots now train at an auxiliary landing field near Oceana, but that field is crowded by development.

To build the airfield, the government would have to buy out several area farmers and fend off tens of thousands of large migratory waterfowl that winter in the region. The U.S. Agriculture Department says bird flocks could be controlled with fireworks, chemical repellents and dogs. If those tactics don't work, according to the report attached to the Navy's latest environmental study of the site, the department recommends using poison and guns to kill the birds.