Navy to Pay SDG&E; for Chaff Damage

The Navy will pay San Diego Gas & Electric’s claim for $49,000 in damages caused by the Navy’s dropping of millions of nontoxic, hair-fine fibers called “chaff” as part of an air-defense exercise, a Navy spokesman said Monday.

Ending a six-month investigation, the Navy concluded there was no “direct evidence” to establish that the chaff caused a power outage for 65,000 SDG&E; customers Jan. 10. But the Navy said it would pay the utility company’s claim because there was some circumstantial evidence tying the outage to the chaff.

That evidence included the Federal Aviation Administration’s tracking of the chaff over the San Diego area and the connection between the timing and direction of the chaff-cloud paths and the utility failures, the spokesman said.

The chaff, dropped in a 3,000-pound cloud 100 to 190 miles offshore, drifted inland on unexpectedly high winds, costing the utility almost $50,000 in damaged equipment, labor and customer claims. Many customers who complained to SDG&E; said their appliances and other electrical devices failed to work even after the power was restored.

The chaff is an aluminum-fiberglass substance designed to baffle radar-guided missiles and protect aircraft carrier battle groups.

After the Jan. 10 incident and another one five days later, when an airplane taking off from Miramar Naval Air Station inadvertently dropped several packages of chaff on a power substation, the Navy agreed to investigate. But it refused to stop the practice.

“It is imperative that we continue to do this to maintain proficiency,” Lt. Cmdr. Tom Jurkowsky, a spokesman for the Navy air forces in the Pacific, said at the time.