Judge lifts parts of Navy sonar restrictions

The guided-missile destroyer Carney led a column of U.S. and Peruvian warships during Silent Forces Exercise in July. A federal judge has lifted parts of an injunction that would have restricted sonar training.


Judge lifts parts of Navy sonar restrictions
By Chris Amos - Staff writer
Posted : Friday Jan 18, 2008 17:27:03 EST

A federal judge has lifted parts of an injunction that would have restricted sonar training during exercises off the California coast that are to be held by the Abraham Lincoln strike group later this month, as well as similar exercises by other West Coast carrier and amphibious assault strike groups until January 2009.

The injunction was issued Jan. 3 by U.S. District Judge Florence Cooper in response to a lawsuit filed by environmentalist groups, who complained that extensive use of mid-frequency range active sonar during Navy training exercises had killed an untold number of whales around the world.

But in response to the injunction, President Bush issued a statement Jan. 15 exempting naval exercises off the Southern California coast from regulation by the Coastal Zone Management Act. The White House Council on Environmental Quality approved a plan that Navy officials say puts its planned sonar use in compliance with a second federal law, the National Environmental Policy Act.

Navy officials say those two federal laws provided the basis for the lawsuit and for Cooper’s injunction, which barred the Navy from using sonar within 12 miles of the California coast; required Navy sonar to be shut down when whales are spotted within 2,000 meters of Navy ships; required the Navy to use two specially trained lookouts during sonar use; required the Navy to watch for whales from the air for at least 60 minutes before sonar can be powered up; and required the Navy to power down its sonar when sea conditions are such that sound waves carry farther.

The Navy, citing the two developments, asked a federal appeals court in San Francisco to overturn Cooper’s injunction, and the appeals court sent the case back to Cooper for further consideration. She announced her latest decision Jan. 17.


Rest of article at: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2008/01/navy_sonar_update_080118w/