U.S. Navy, Conservationists Reach $16 Million Sonar
Settlement
LOS ANGELES, California, January 5, 2009 (ENS)
After years of litigation, the U.S. Navy and marine mammal conservation
groups have reached a settlement agreement to resolve a worldwide challenge
to the Navy's testing and training with mid-frequency active sonar.
The settlement agreed on December 27 resolves a lawsuit filed in 2005 by
five groups and one individual, challenging the Navy's lack of environmental
review prior to deploying mid-frequency active sonar during training
exercises carried out around the world. The Navy uses sonar to detect the
presence of submarines.
The Navy acknowledged that this type of underwater sonar can be deadly to
marine mammals, causing permanent injury and temporary deafness.
Mid-frequency sonar can emit continuous sound above 235 decibels, an
intensity roughly comparable to a rocket at blastoff.
"This agreement commits the Navy for the first time to a program of
environmental review and public transparency in its sonar training in an
effort to shield whales and other vulnerable species from harmful underwater
noise," said Joel Reynolds, senior attorney and director of the marine
mammal program conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of
the plaintiff groups.
"While it does not resolve disagreements with the Navy over operational
safeguards required to reduce sonar's risk to whales and other marine life,"
said Reynolds, "it sets in place a process for negotiation between the Navy
and this environmental coalition that we hope will reduce the need for
future litigation."
Reflected in a ship's porthole, U.S. Navy Seaman Tanya Sylvester stands
watch as part of medium frequency active sonar mitigation measures aboard
the Arleigh-Burke class guided-missile destroyer USS Howard in the Pacific
Ocean. April 2008. (Photo by Mass Communications Specialist Benjamin
Brossard courtesy U.S. Navy)
The settlement requires disclosure of previously classified information
regarding the Navy's sonar use and commits the Navy to fund $14.75 million
in new marine mammal research designated by NRDC and co-plaintiffs.
Other plaintiffs include the International Fund for Animal Welfare, Cetacean
Society International, League for Coastal Protection, Ocean Futures Society
and its founding president Jean-Michel Cousteau.
The Navy also agreed to pay $1.1 million dollars in attorney's fees for
settling both the 2005 lawsuit and a 2006 lawsuit regarding sonar use around
Hawaii.
"The Navy is pleased that after more than three years of extensive
litigation, this matter has been brought to an end on favorable terms," said
Frank R. Jimenez, general counsel of the Navy. "The Navy welcomes an
approach that relies more upon scientific research than litigation."
"The settlement essentially adopts the long range program for environmental
analysis and research that the Navy undertook in August 2005, months before
this lawsuit was originally filed," Jimenez said. "The Navy will continue to
implement a variety of protective measures previously developed in
cooperation with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The
agreement does not require any additional mitigation measures," he said.
The settlement sets out a schedule for the Navy to prepare and issue
environmental statements for sonar exercises and ranges around the world.
The settlement does not address mitigation measures or training limitations
at issue in Winter v NRDC, recently decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in
favor of the Navy.
In that case, the Supreme Court ruled in November 2008, that the lower court
abused its discretion in imposing sonar shutdown and power-down requirements
on the Navy during mid-frequency active sonar training exercises off the
coast of southern California. The Supreme Court reversed and vacated those
portions of the lower court's injunction.
However, the newly agreed settlement does require public disclosure of
previously classified information on sonar, including information that had
been covered by protective order in Winter v. NRDC.
The Navy also agrees to provide plaintiffs a series of briefings on sonar
compliance and mitigation-related issues.
The settlement establishes a cooling off period to permit negotiation
between plaintiffs and the Navy when future sonar disagreements arise.
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