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N.C. senator opposes Navy landing-field site

RALEIGH, N.C. — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole said Thursday she opposes putting a Navy practice landing field in rural eastern North Carolina, a plan that has drawn widespread opposition from elected officials, environmentalists and local leaders.

The state’s senior senator, who joins fellow Republican and U.S. Sen. Richard Burr and Democratic Gov. Mike Easley in opposing the outlying landing field, or OLF, said the proposal was “not feasible.” She said it fails to adequately address environmental and safety concerns about allowing fighter jets to land near a wildlife refuge.

“I will oppose funding for an OLF site in Washington County and other sites that fail to meet the standards,” Dole said in a letter to Navy Secretary Donald Winter.

Dole, a member of the Senate’s Armed Services Committee, said the Navy “must withdraw its recommendation” and focus on alternate sites where concerns are more limited.

National sporting and conservation groups, along with local leaders, have also fought against the site, saying the landing field would hurt thousands of migratory birds that flock to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge each year.

Navy spokesman Ted Brown said Dole’s participation in the process is welcomed and that a final decision won’t be made until this fall. Four other potential sites are being considered in North Carolina.

“The Navy remains convinced that the process that has been taken to identify and evaluate reasonable alternative sites for an OLF was thorough,” Brown said.

The Washington County site remains the Navy’s preferred site, but all five areas are “viable choices available to the Navy’s decision makers,” he said.

The Navy’s preferred site is midway between Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point at Havelock and the Navy’s Oceana Air Station at Virginia Beach, Va. The Navy will base F/A-18 Super Hornet jet fighters at the air stations.

Building the remote landing field in Washington County would allow the fighter jets to simulate night landings on aircraft carriers.

Audubon North Carolina issued a statement praising Dole’s decision Thursday.

“No other member of our delegation has been better informed or more personally involved in the landing field debate, and no other member has given the Navy more chances along the way,” said Chris Canfield, executive director of the state organization.

“It is truly significant, therefore, that she has now seen the Navy plan for the dangerous and unwanted proposal that it is.”