Deadline extended, coalition forming RE: Comments due TOMORROW on Electronic Warfare in Olympic Peninsula

Deadline extended, coalition forming RE: Comments due TOMORROW on Electronic Warfare in Olympic Peninsula

Hello All at EMF Refugee and interested list serves,

DEADLINE EXTENSIONS: Please forward the information to all interested parties that the deadline for comments in opposition to the Pacific Northwest Electronic Warfare Range proposed in the Olympic Peninsula has been extended to November 28, 2014!

Wireless Education Action is a formal subscriber and interested party to this issue since we filed an objection on a previous deadline of October 10, which was then extended to the 31^st, and now further, to November 28, 2014. Please see this link for the latest extension, http://a123.g.akamai..net/7/123/11558/abc123/forestservic.download.akamai.com/11558/www/nepa/97011_FSPLT3_2371148.pdf

There have been several extensions and since I don’t know the parameters around how long the extensions are going on, it is important to do what we can with comment submissions ASAP, whether formal organization or private party, in order to get on the map with our ‘as many as possible’ objections and to become part of the notification list. 

LOCAL/NATIONAL WILDERNESS AND WILDLIFE ISSUE: This is not just a local issue, since the Olympic Peninsula is one of the last non-tropical rain forests left in the world, is also classed as a World Heritage site http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_National_Park and is a designated International Biosphere Reserve that draws visitors from local, regional and worldwide origins. The impact of an EMF warfare project in the Olympic Peninsula has implications that are staggering and far-fetched, environmentally, and for land animals and fisheries due to absurd comment by proponents of this ill-conceived project. They state that “large wildlife and humans will not be harmed” (emphasis added) and that the radiation beam will be upward pointed so that any birds will fly quickly through it with no effect on them, and that there is ‘no conclusive direct hazards to human tissues as a result of EM radiation”. All of these statements are taken out of context and refer specifically irrelevant factors, which make them factually incorrect when applied in specific context to the paradigm of preserving a national heritage monument, such as the Olympic National Park. Politically interpreted statements distort the original methodology of the research results, rendering their political applicability invalid and therefore not admissible as evidence of no harm. Further, the parameters of the upward directed beam are quantifiably inaccurate since it is impossible isolate the spread factor of EMF radiation, which is by definition omnidirectional and propagates its power-density in way that is proven to distort bird navigation mechanisms at a level that is not topically relevant to any standards for human tissue heating until blistering and heat burns. The data being quoted can be rebutted as, at least, intentionally misrepresentative of its original research parameters and therefore is not sufficient for dramatic mission changes in public policy and public interest aims for heritage sites and, at most, may constitute false statements so to encourage the Forest Service to act precipitously.

LOCAL/NATIONAL TOURISM AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ISSUE: Quantifiably foreseeable destruction of local tourism and small business communities can be exhibited in revenue forecasting models up and down the Olympic Peninsula, and for any national businesses- even international visitors from Europe and the Pacific Rim- who obtain revenue by listing the Olympic Peninsula, and surrounds, as a destination site. Patently absurd is it to discount the immediate and long-term effects to tourism when, for example, any small group wildlife tourists will not be alarmed when encountering roving warning signs to ‘Keep Walking’ due to risk of radiation burns and blistering. This scenario is a prime facie branding catastrophe for small businesses that depend on repeat customers- a failure of Marketing 101 called ‘leading with a negative’- where customers can be predicted to divert to another more pristine wilderness than return to any site that hosts Electronic Warfare and the risk of radiation burns to a child or loved one. Worse, any success to dismantle the protections to this revered site can, and likely will, be used as a blueprint to effect the same usage changes to any other park’s mission and heritage, in any other national park in any other state.

BREACH OF THE PUBLIC’S TRUST: Interfering with the public’s unabridged access to a critical resource for recreation and preservation of at risk and endangered species habitat and migration may be a constitutional violation of due process and a breach of Congressional intent. Such a diversion of Congressional intent is not protected under FCC regulatory laws, nor the corresponding Code of Federal Regulations without enacting pre-emptive authority. Yet, language present in the project’s Environmental Assessment is consistent absence of this pre-emptive authority, relying on misrepresentation and an apparent fraud on the public to carry cause with violation of equal access to the public commons. Incorrect harmonization and application of FCC authority presented in even the most cursory read of the Environmental Assessment (EA), in fact, does not overcome safeguards for the public’s interest. A woefully short and inadequate version of this EA can be found at http://a123.g.akamai..net/7/123/11558/abc123/forestservic.download.akamai.com/11558/www/nepa/97011_FSPLT3_1665844.pdf. Further,  when challenged under logic due process and reasonable access, such challenges have been proven supported with merit at the federal circuit court level, or have settled in favor of the reduction of exposure to EMF radiation under Americans with Disability Act. The proposed usage of a protected preserve for a military/industrial warfare project cannot comply with ADA reasonable accommodation requirements for removing barriers to access to public areas for those who suffer from disabling EMF Sensitization. The creation of an Electronic Warfare Range in the Olympic National Park constitutes a permanent and unreasonable barrier to access to those who are thus disabled and subjects disparate impact and unreasonable violation of due process for disenfranchised community whose underlying medical conditions are not subject to generalized population guidelines for regulatory exposure under SAR, or other power density driven radiation exposure guidelines. 

These are only a few of the pointed objections that Wireless Education Action will make as our especial area of expertise in contribution to an NGO coalition aligned to stop this frivolous misuse of a treasured monument, a misuse where no clear and present danger exists to empower  National Security pre-emptions over the public and State’s policy land development uses, and where other sites exists to conduct this work where that site will be less intrusive of the public’s constitutionally protected right to reject this proposal.

JOIN OUR COALITION: Wireless Education Action (WEA) is gathering a formal coalition of NGOs and interested parties, to provide a coordinated front in opposition to this ill-considered project. We are already in conversation with, or arranging strategic contacts with National and local Chapters of Audubon Society, National and local Chapters of Sierra Club, in conversation with local Chambers of Commerce in the Port Angeles area, with Washington State Tourism authorities at the county level, River Keepers’ local Chapter member, Soundkeepers, independent local tourism and marketing organizations (which will remain anonymous for now), and our friends across the border of Canada at Citizens for Safe Technology; we are in process of connection with Washington Fish & Wildlife, several Real Estate Brokerage associations discussing the loss of property values in the surrounding areas, and sovereign treaty violations that might impact the Quileute, Quinault, and Hoh Nations. If anyone wants to volunteer their time in contacts and establishing a coalition and network in opposition, please contact me for topic response coordination and strategic coalition operations at merrycallahan@comcast.net(wirelesseducationaction.org is undergoing a rehabilitation, and is ‘under construction’ at this time.)

LOCAL INTEREST AND NEAR SOURCE INFORMATION: Another site of interest is here, at a local newspaper, where you may find links and communities who are complaining in the accompanying blog of the stealthy-seeming and ineffective informative nature of notifying the public over this important topic at http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/article/20140928/NEWS/309289934. The thread begins at a Peninsula News story that has a broad based on-line supportive commentary attached. Some of the commenters are arranging coalitions and providing each other with specs on equipment likely to be used, and information suggestive that the US Forest Department may be complicit in overreach by arranging that photography is no longer allowed in the Olympic National Park. I have not corroborated this anecdotal comment, but if true it speaks to the possibility that unreported and unauthorized operational Electronic Warfare testing might already be going on in the pristine reserve, which would be contrary to the Congressional intent to preserve the Olympic National Park as a federally protected site. 

WE CAN WIN THIS FIGHT; HERE’S HOW: The attempt to codify a Pacific NW Electronic Warfare Range will not be blocked quickly, but it can be stopped, with little more than perseverance and informed collaboration. Recently a similar resistance to industrial polluters overtaking the public’s interest was won in Oregon by the efforts of a coalition of NGOs, and others, whose actions put down a coal industry giant who sought to export 8 billion tons of coal per year down a railway on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge corridor, endangering wildlife and polluting a scenic waterway of critical environmental importance, and whose pristine quality is critical to local economic sustainable businesses. The Oregon Department of State Lands sided with refusing to endanger the public’s interest in the conservation of a critical water source, the Columbia River, and we can persuade the US Forest staff to do the same in the Olympic Peninsula. Oregon Physicians for Social Responsibility (OPSR) reports the win in their newsletter The Folded Crane:  http://www.psr.org/chapters/oregon/assets/pdfs/oregon-psrs-the-folded-crane.pdf  

A BLUEPRINT FOR THE WIN: OPSR’s win gives the rest of us a roadmap to success through an organized coalition against the giants among us who seek to suppress our voice and devour our right to a clean and toxin free environment. WEA walks in OPSR’s footprints to emulate their laudable achievements. You can help us do that with any bits of news you think is relevant for us to act on, or to include in our report to recommend rejection of approval of the Navy’s project due to a] insufficient evidence for the management of the public’s interest in preserving the mission of a heritage monument, and a reject6on of approval of the Navy’s project due to misrepresentation of evidence of no harm to critical wildlife and their habitats and sensitive ecosystems, and a rejection of the Navy’s project due to b] negative impact to the local economy and an unreasonable interference with the paramount policy of the state to preserve its fishing, recreation and wildlife aims, and c] for the prima facie violation of reasonable access for those with ADA recognized disabling effects in the presence of EMF radiation emissions. To volunteer and help us build our coalition by making calls to organizations and contacting private list serves- who are outraged when they hear of this travesty of an EMF Warfare Range in Olympic National Park- please contact Merry at merrycallahan@comcast.net.

DONATE, TOO: If you can donate funds, so that we can support legal representation and expand our organization infrastructure and materials in support of this project; your donation will be greatly appreciated and wisely used. Despite our ‘under construction banner Wireless Education Action’s site donation link is active and functioning at www.wirelesseducationaction.org. Please click on the ‘donate’ link and follow the Pay Pal instructions.

All the best,

Merry Callahan 

Co-founder, Wireless Education Action, a 501c3 non-profit