SEATTLE — A federal judge has ruled the Navy’s environmental review process for its Whidbey Island Growlers illegally failed to analyze the impacts on classroom learning and local birds, which is a violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.
The ruling came in Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s challenge to the Navy’s March 2019 decision to authorize an expansion of its Growler program, increasing the number of flights to more than 110,000 per year.
The training regimen of the loud and often low-flying jets requires frequent take-offs and landings. The court ruled in favor of the state’s claims that the Navy failed to consider the impacts of the jets on local classrooms, and on various bird species, including tufted puffins, which the state lists as endangered.
The court also ruled in favor of two claims in a related lawsuit filed by Citizens of Ebey’s Reserve, saying the Navy did not properly consider other locations for the Growler expansion, nor did it properly consider the greenhouse gas impacts of Growler fuel use.
The state and the other parties now have 30 days to either agree on a remedy or a briefing schedule on a remedy.