Wetlands, mussels thwart Navy field plans

NORFOLK, Va., Sept. 7 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy's plan to build an airfield in North Carolina is meeting resistance by environmentalists, opponents of the plan said.

Undocumented wetland and freshwater mussels are getting in the way of Navy plans to build an outlying landing field in one of several targeted areas in North Carolina and Virginia, The (Norfolk) Virginian- Pilot reported Sunday.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers told the Navy July 21 that permits for its proposed outlying landing field could be denied at the two North Carolina sites in question if the Navy does not complete an environmental study in a timely way.

"The (Navy) study is not good enough at this point. If the Navy does not conduct a thorough analysis of the wetlands, I don't see how the Corps of Engineers can issue a Clean Water Act permit, and that would stop an OLF from being built," said Glenn Dunn, an attorney with the Raleigh law firm, Poyner Spruill.

"The Navy should remove Gates County (N.C.) from the list based on the rare mussels and the wetlands. The Chowan River Basin (in N.C.) is one of the few examples where we can say things have gotten significantly better since the 1970s," said Ryke Longest, director of the Environmental Law and Policy Clinic at Duke University.

A Gates County residents group is getting help in opposing the airfield from the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and the Duke clinic.