Raucous protesters shout down Navy presentation on war games
Published: Nov 6, 2014 at 9:53 PM PST Last Updated: Nov 6, 2014 at 11:29 PM PST
»PLAY VIDEO
PORT ANGELES, Wash. -- Democracy and discord went well together in the jammed Port Angeles City Hall Thursday night.
"No public input," shouted demonstrators and protesters, aiming their vitriol toward Navy and U.S. Forest Service members sitting on the council dias.
The two hour question-and-answer session focused on public response to a plan to install and expand electromagnetic emitter systems in the Olympic National Forest. The systems are designed for war games and testing for the military.
"With all sincerity, these signal transmitters have gone under close scrutiny on what they would be doing and where they would be doing it and it poses no threat to people or wildlife," said the Navy's John Mosher.
As he finished his comment, he was hit with a rain of boos and yelled comments.
Neighbors said they fear what the signal emitters and mobile units could do to the environment of the massive forest. The military said it would take a serious concentration of electromagnetic radiation in close proximity to do anything negative.
Many disagreed.
"Irradiated vegetation and wildlife and possibly irradiated people who live or work near these mobile emitters for decades to come and the science behind this is shakier than the San Andreas fault," said Dr. Beverly Goldie.
The Forest Service said the project it is still in the environmental study process and Thursday night's meeting was only the public comment portion. Written comments can be given until the end of the month.
"No public input," shouted demonstrators and protesters, aiming their vitriol toward Navy and U.S. Forest Service members sitting on the council dias.
The two hour question-and-answer session focused on public response to a plan to install and expand electromagnetic emitter systems in the Olympic National Forest. The systems are designed for war games and testing for the military.
"With all sincerity, these signal transmitters have gone under close scrutiny on what they would be doing and where they would be doing it and it poses no threat to people or wildlife," said the Navy's John Mosher.
As he finished his comment, he was hit with a rain of boos and yelled comments.
Neighbors said they fear what the signal emitters and mobile units could do to the environment of the massive forest. The military said it would take a serious concentration of electromagnetic radiation in close proximity to do anything negative.
Many disagreed.
"Irradiated vegetation and wildlife and possibly irradiated people who live or work near these mobile emitters for decades to come and the science behind this is shakier than the San Andreas fault," said Dr. Beverly Goldie.
The Forest Service said the project it is still in the environmental study process and Thursday night's meeting was only the public comment portion. Written comments can be given until the end of the month.
No comments:
Post a Comment