Greenwire November 26, 2002
PUERTO RICO: NAVY READIES FOR CLOSURE OF VIEQUES BOMBING RANGE
The Navy said on Monday it plans to increase its live bombing practice on Florida military sites to begin phasing out the aerial bombing runs on Puerto Rico's Vieques Island.
The Navy has promised to leave Vieques by May 2003. "We've been using Vieques for years and years and years," said Adm. Robert J. Natter. "But the reality is we're leaving Vieques." Natter said the Navy is conducting environmental impact studies for the Florida sites.
Environmentalists have opposed the Vieques operations, saying the Navy's aerial bombing practices endanger marine life and air quality. Studies by Puerto Rican researchers have found high levels of heavy metals in crabs, plants and human hair. And in 1999, two off-target bombs killed a civilian guard on the range. But the Navy disputes the findings and says its operations on the island are vital for national defense and cannot be carried out elsewhere.
The Navy's presence in Vieques took another hit in October when the Defense Department revealed that its Cold War-era program included a test of chemical and germ warfare on Vieques in May 1969. As part of the testing program, the federal government exposed civilians to "simulants," which authorities said they believed to be harmless agents but have later proven to be dangerous. In Vieques, the military sprayed a Marines unit and the U.S.S. Fort Snelling with trioctyl phosphate, a nontoxic substitute for the much more sinister VX, a nerve agent. While the substance has caused cancer in some animals, scientists have not been able to link it to any long-term effects on humans (Greenwire, Oct. 28).
And a 5-year-old girl who activists say may have become ill due to the Navy's aerial bombing practice on Vieques died of cancer earlier this month (Greenwire, Nov. 19).
The Navy is not facing similar opposition in Florida. "As long as we drop one on Osama, they can drop live bombs here all they want," said Marcus Lanfier, who lives near the Avon Park training site (Sean Mussenden, Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 26).
Meanwhile, the Navy has developed new software that reduces the need for the Vieques bombing range. The Virtual At Sea Training system allows fire tests in empty ocean areas to simulate other military targets. "Does this have an application to Vieques? Yes," said Barry Higginbotham, spokesman for the Atlantic Fleet in Virginia.
Still, John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org said the Navy will still need "an island you can blow up." Pike: "They're always going to need a piece of beach to go after" (Ward Sanderson, Stars and Stripes, Nov. 25). -- DIL
Copyright 2002 Environment and Energy Publishing, LLC
