New comment period for low-flight training proposal

ARLINGTON, VA – While a 45-day public comment period on a proposal to lower the minimum altitude of Air National Guard training flights over much of Franklin County will end Wednesday, residents will have another chance to have their voices heard.

An ANG representative confirmed today that residents will have a second opportunity to submit public comments, as the current 45-day comment period will end on Sept. 23, 2009. Lt. Col. Mike Milord, National Guard Public Affairs, said that any written comments received so far on a draft version of an Environmental Impact Study would be retained.

Milord said that many members of the public had already sent letters to his office regarding the draft EIS. That EIS came to the same conclusions as the less-intensive Environmental Assessment, released in 2007; namely that altering the Condor 1 and Condor 2 Military Operations Areas minimum-altitude requirements to aid in ANG training would not have a significant effect on the region.

Currently, ANG pilots must stay 7,000 feet above sea level throughout much of Condor 1 and Condor 2. The exception to this rule are military training routes, or “MTRs” which make up roughly 53 percent of the area. In the MTRs, F-15 and F-16 jets are allowed to fly as low as 500 feet off the ground. This system has been in place for roughly 30 years.

The ANG has consistently argued that the MTRs do not allow for the maneuvering necessary for some training, namely Low Altitude Awareness Training, Low Slow/Visual Identification training and Slow Shadow intercept training. The modification, the EIS says, would allow the ANG to meet its training requirements.

Some residents, however, have expressed concerns about the effects of the jets’ sudden, loud sound bursts on the health of people and animals; the potential for mid-air collisions with recreational light aircraft; and potential economic impacts on western Maine businesses that depend on quiet, peaceful settings to function.

Governor John Baldacci asked the ANG to delay a public hearing on the draft EIS, scheduled for early September, after Maine Department of Transportation personnel, the Attorney General’s Office and residents came forward with concerns about the EIS.

“…These assessments strongly suggest that more work needs to be done to assure me and the people of the Western Maine that no significant impacts will result from the proposed changes to the Condor MOA,” Baldacci concluded in a letter addressed to ANG Col. William Albro at the Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

After receiving the letter, the ANG agreed to delay proceedings, postponing the September public meeting. The comment period, however, remained active. When the ANG decides to reschedule the public meeting, Milord said today, a new, 45-day comment period will be held. Any comments received during that future comment period, or at the public meeting, would be added to comments received in the comment period ending Sept. 23.

When the new public meeting and comment period will occur remains unknown. Milord noted that the meeting would need to be recorded in the federal registry and would have to follow a number of federal guidelines.

You can read the draft version of the EIS here, at the MDOT website.

You can read the Governor’s letter to the ANG here, as a .pdf on dailybulldog.com.