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Sunday, October 24, 2010
Could Criticism Damage Cannon?
By Charles D. Brunt
Copyright © 2010 Albuquerque Journal
Journal Staff Writer
A wave of public and political support helped save Cannon Air Force Base from the chopping block four years ago. Today, the base faces a wave of public criticism as officials push a plan to conduct low-altitude training flights over northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.
The 3,789-acre base just west of Clovis is in the preliminary stages of establishing a Low-Altitude Tactical Navigation area, or LATN, for its MC-130 transports and CV-22 hybrid aircraft, but opposition is already loud.
And some worry that such criticism and a failure to establish the LATN could affect Cannon's future should there be another round of military base closings.
Sherman McCorkle, an advocate for keeping New Mexico's bases strong, says failure to establish the LATN would "absolutely, unequivocally" have an impact; Cannon's commander says the base's future is secure regardless of whether the LATN is approved.
So far, the Taos, Santa Fe and Rio Arriba county commissions, along with the city councils of Las Vegas and Taos, have passed resolutions opposing the plan.
Despite Air Force assurances that the planes will avoid populated and environmentally sensitive areas, a citizens' group called The Peaceful Skies Coalition has formed to oppose the plan. A spokesman for the group, Cliff Bain of Arroyo Hondo, said the flights will disrupt residents and wildlife while polluting the environment and consuming taxpayer dollars.
Bain, who said he was part of an ad hoc citizens' group that successfully fought Air Force plans in the 1990s to conduct training flights of the B-1 Lancer bomber over northern New Mexico, said the coalition will challenge the LATN at every level.
"There's absolutely no way any reasonable person can say this will have no significant impact" on the environment and the people living in the 94,000 square miles affected by the proposed flights, he said.
Congressmen here and in Colorado have taken note of the concern, and, at their behest, the Air Force agreed to extend the initial public-comment period by more than a month and will continue accepting written comments through Nov. 15.
New Mexico's two U.S. senators say the low-altitude training is critical to Cannon's mission but say the Air Force needs to ensure that it will be done responsibly.
"I think people perhaps don't understand that this type of low-altitude training is an essential part of what the Air Force needs to be doing as part of this new mission at Cannon Air Force Base," Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said by phone Tuesday. "And, frankly, they've done low-altitude training at Cannon Air Force Base for at least a couple of decades ... so it's not a new concept.
"I don't think the question is whether they should do low-altitude training. I think the question is where it should occur," Bingaman said.
The process set up by the Air Force, he said, will reach a fair decision.
Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M., said Thursday that some residents jumped the gun with their opposition.
"People think they're going to fly right over Taos and Santa Fe, and that's not the case," Udall said. "I can understand if someone thinks they're going to fly right over their house that they'd be very upset. That's where this is coming from. The Air Force should not be conducting these flights over populated areas, Indian pueblos, noise-sensitive areas and areas of special cultural significance, and I told the Air Force that under no uncertain terms."
Udall stopped short of saying he supports the LATN, saying it's too early in the process.
U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., was noncommittal about his support for the LATN, which, like Clovis, falls in his district.
"I share the same concerns about the potential impact of the proposal that so many of my constituents have expressed to me," Luján said Wednesday.
Step 1, assessment
Since Sept. 2, Cannon officials have been seeking public input on its plans to develop a federally required Environmental Assessment "to evaluate the potential environmental consequences" of establishing the proposed LATN.
A draft of the assessment will probably be available in the spring, base officials said. After another public-comment period and any necessary revisions, a final Environmental Assessment will be published.
The final assessment will reach one of two outcomes: the LATN will have "no significant impact" on the environment; or a more extensive Environmental Impact Statement must be developed — a process that could take years.
Col. Stephen A. Clark, commander at Cannon, has hosted public meetings on the LATN this month in Santa Fe, Taos, Raton and Las Vegas, and in the Colorado communities of Montrose, Durango, Alamosa and Pueblo.
Clark said he is puzzled by the early opposition.
"I think there is opposition this early because I don't believe most people knew it was early in the process," Clark said Tuesday. "I think most of them thought we were coming to a decision point. ... We're actually at the very beginning of a nine- to 12-month process."
Big planes flying low
Under the proposal, Cannon's host unit, the 27th Special Operations Wing, would establish a Low-Altitude Tactical Navigation area over northern New Mexico and southern Colorado to train its Special Operations Forces flying the MC-130J Super Hercules and CV-22 Ospreys.
The training would consist of about three, five-hour flights per day, or approximately 688 flights per year. Most of those would occur at night, and 95 percent would occur on weekdays.
The kicker: The aircraft would fly at altitudes as low as 200 feet and at speeds of nearly 285 mph. Anyone finding themselves underneath such a flight can expect a thunderous surprise.
The MC-130J is used primarily for aerial refueling of CV-22 Ospreys and helicopters, according to its manufacturer, Lockheed Martin. Cannon, which currently flies two versions of the C-130, will begin receiving the updated MC-1230Js in August 2011.
The CV-22 Osprey is a tilt-rotor aircraft that combines the vertical flight capabilities of a helicopter with the speed and range of a turboprop airplane.
Both aircraft are required to follow Federal Aviation Administration and Air Force regulations, which require them to avoid airfields, towns, noise sensitive areas, and wilderness areas by prescribed vertical and/or horizontal distances.
Still, residents at the public meetings this fall expressed concerns over noise and vibrations caused by low-flying aircraft on residents, livestock, wildlife and aging adobe buildings.
Others have said the vast amounts of fuel being burned by the aircraft — and the storage of those fuels at various bases — will contribute to air and ground pollution.
Why here?
Some opponents of the LATN have asked why the low-altitude flights need to be in northern New Mexico.
While Cannon's aircraft already have access to high mesa and desert areas for training, they don't now have enough mountainous terrain.
"Our mission is to fly at night, in the weather, at low level," Clark said. "That's what we are tasked to do, to be able to bring in and bring out special forces units in all terrain."
If Cannon does not succeed in establishing the LATN, its MC-130Js and CV-22s will train on existing Military Training Routes now used by Cannon and Kirtland Air Force Base.
While military training routes are clearly defined and mapped, aircraft flying in LATNs use ever-changing routes.
"We're not going to publish routes," Clark said. "The whole purpose of a LATN is to attempt to not overfly the same airspace repeatedly, time and time again, and therefore concentrate the impacts of what we're doing to the same areas.
"The purpose of a LATN is to be able to build new routes constantly in order to maneuver around that air space in total and therefore mitigate, as best we can, any environmental impacts," he said.
Udall, who has traveled to Afghanistan, said he has seen the areas where the U.S. military needs to operate.
"These are mountainous areas, and some of it is very similar to the terrain in New Mexico," Udall said.
Cannon's future
The low-flight controversy is a result of efforts to keep Cannon Air Force Base open.
In 2005, the Defense Department recommended that the Base Realignment and Closure Commission (BRAC) close Cannon and redistribute its three squadrons of F-16s to other wings.
That sent New Mexico's congressional delegates, Clovis boosters and Gov. Bill Richardson scrambling to save the base. In June of that year, all of them held a rally for BRAC commissioners at Cannon.
"Basically, the economic impact is so devastating that (Clovis) might not survive," Richardson said then.
Cannon backers disputed the Air Force's estimates over air space and flight restrictions, possible population encroachment and costs of relocating airmen from Cannon.
After concluding that the Defense Department had deviated substantially from its stated criteria for closing bases, the BRAC still shipped off Cannon's F-16s but recommended finding the base a new mission.
That new mission is the 27th Special Operations Wing, which brings with it about 3,700 active duty military personnel and 630 civilian employees, base officials said on Oct. 14.
According to Cannon officials, the base's overall annual economic impact on the region is $339.7 million — more than one-third of Clovis' economy.
Even if the LATN proposal doesn't fly, Cannon should be safe from any future BRACs, Clark said.
"I don't think whether we get the LATN or not will have any impact on any potential or future decision about the status of Cannon," Clark said, noting that the base is undergoing a construction boom to accommodate an influx of personnel.
"By the time we're done ... in the 2020 to 2025 time frame, we'll be well over $1 billion in infrastructure," he said.
By 2014, he said, Cannon will have more than 6,000 military and civilian personnel.
Bingaman said any talk about a future BRAC is "very speculative," and Udall said there has been no talk about one on Capitol Hill.
Prior to 2005, BRACs had been convened in 1988, 1991, 1993 and 1995.
McCorkle, vice chairman of the Kirtland Partnership Committee which, since 1996, has successfully protected Kirtland Air Force Base from downsizing, is concerned about the impact a failure to lock down Cannon's LATN area have on any future BRAC decisions.
"Cannon's new mission is training, so the LATN is the mission," McCorkle said. "If you can't do your mission, you go somewhere where you can do your mission."
McCorkle said New Mexico's air force bases — Cannon, Holloman and Kirtland — "are essentially about training." Without appropriate training routes and locations, he said, the training missions become vulnerable to an increasingly cost-conscious Pentagon.
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