Appeal Renewed for Impact Report on Radar Facilities

The California Coastal Commission has renewed an appeal to the Navy to submit a special report disclosing any possible negative impacts of its radar facilities at the tip of Silver Strand Beach near Oxnard.

A Navy proposal to fly Lear jets toward the radar facility to test radar countermeasure systems found on warships has been under fire from local residents, who fear that the low-flying aircraft could make noise and create safety hazards.

But the newest challenge to the project adds the issue of whether radiation from the facility might also be a hazard.

In a Feb. 16 letter to the Navy, Mark Delaplaine of the Coastal Commission wrote that the Navy has failed to submit a consistency determination--an environmental impact document required of federal agencies planning projects in coastal zones--since it unveiled plans for the $100-million facility in 1978.

The Coastal Commission requested the after-the-fact review for the second time 10 days ago after asking for the document in a Sept. 8, 1995, letter. The latest letter also asks questions about the possibility of radio frequency radiation hazards caused by the Surface Warfare Engineering Facility.

“Our concerns are mainly recreation and habitat--the impacts on pelicans, beach use, boating and surfing,” said Delaplaine, federal consistency supervisor, in an interview Friday.

“Radar can be considered a recreation issue if people are afraid, for instance, to surf in the area if it is going to have physiological effects. . . . I personally doubt that there is a hazard, but if I lived there, I would rather have the information.”

Delaplaine said it is possible that the Coastal Commission, which in 1978 had been recently formed, received a consistency determination from the Navy but ended up losing it.

“We are not 100% sure about it,” Delaplaine said.

Navy officials said Monday they were researching whether they had already complied with Coastal Commission requirements.

But the Navy cites a Navy-commissioned study conducted in 1994 that found no radio frequency radiation hazard along Silver Strand Beach and sites bordering residential areas.

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Russell George, a Navy equipment specialist and the facility’s site manager, said the Navy has taken every step to ensure safety, including mounting the radar equipment atop the five-story facility’s roof, pointing them toward the ocean and adjusting angles so beams do not approach the water’s surface.

“We want to make sure we are not going to illuminate anyone on the beach,” said George, who lives in Silver Strand Beach. “I am not going to want to have these systems radiate toward me.”

Strong radio frequency fields, which can heat tissue in a way similar to how a microwave cooks food, can be hazardous to humans exposed for long periods of time.

Delaplaine said the Coastal Commission deemed the report necessary after unearthing the Navy’s 1978 master plan for the five-story facility, which called some of impacts of the radio frequency transmissions unavoidable.

In particular, the Coastal Commission reported that the 1978 document listed modifications the Navy could make to mitigate the effects of the transmissions, but said boat traffic “would be restricted” at times.

“The Navy has never documented the extent of this hazard, and the measures, if any, which were implemented” to address the concerns raised in the 1978 master plan, Delaplaine said in his letter.

Although the Navy conducted a radio frequency radiation study in 1994 that found no hazards, it did not test all its radar equipment. Delaplaine said he would like to hear from the Navy why it did not review all of its equipment and why it no longer finds any potential hazards.

“What changed?” Delaplaine said. “They just need to do the analysis.”

George said the Navy is now working on a response to the Coastal Commission’s letter.

But George said the 1978 document the Coastal Commission unearthed found some potential for hazards because the study evaluated a proposed facility that was more than twice as large as the one actually built. The building concept studied in that proposal also included radar systems that the Navy never installed in the facility, such as the Aegis defense system, George said.

“This [1978 document] is not the final design that was incorporated in the construction of the [facility],” George said. “It does not have all the systems that were proposed initially.”

George said the Navy did not test three radar devices in the 1994 study because they were not working at the time. But he said the Navy was able to perform the same radio frequency transmission tests using other very similar systems and that testers found no hazards.

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Despite assurances from the Navy, many of the 6,000 Silver Strand and nearby Hollywood Beach residents continue to oppose the Navy’s overall proposal, which calls for flying planes at speeds up to 375 mph to simulate missile strikes on a ship.

“The safety of the operation of the building and the safety and the desire of running aircraft at a local residential community is the underlying concern,” said area resident Bill Higgins, 51.

Higgins and others believe the Navy should find a less populated area to perform the testing.

But Navy officials say the tests pose no threat to the public.