Construction In Support of Guard Unit’s Transition to F-35 May Continue

A Federal Judge has dismissed one of the 2 lawsuits filed by an environmental group seeking to halt a series of construction projects required to host the 115th Fighter Wing's new F-35 fighters. The Safe Skies Clean Water organization sought to pause  27 new developments for a study on their environmental effect. The judge said that the National Guard had fulfilled their obligations through their environmental assessments under the law, but Safe Skies wants a much more costly, lengthy study. 

The change from the 115th's F-16's to the F-35 will require a number of new buildings for training, maintenance, and storage that will cost more than $100 million overall. One notable change is the addition of a new simulator system that can interlink with others via the Live Virtual Construct system, hopefully sufficient to decrease the number of real flight hours required for proficiency and ab initio flight training. The environmental assessment could ensure that the development would not leach chemicals into soil and groundwater like some older, war-era bases with aging underground fuel tanks have seen. After the case dismissal, the group instead focused on the effects of noise pollution, with nary a mention of groundwater effects. 

Spokesman Steve Klafka said the ruling "will adversely affect the thousands of people who live near Truax Field, many of whom are low-income and families of color. Safe Skies believes a more thorough evaluation of the noise impacts of fighter jet training was needed, including one that addressed effects on mental and physical health, as well as the education of area children." 

The critics of such use of environmental impact studies say the process has been weaponized by activists as a reliable tool to burn through project funding or delay construction on developments they oppose for unrelated reasons. The National Guard completed an environmental assessment prior to beginning work, but Safe Skies demands a much more thorough environmental impact statement. The group emphasizes that some contamination of the area exists, as the Department of Natural Resources found residual PFAS contamination on and around the base. The Guard has assumed responsibility to clean up the material, but operations often move at a slow pace. Safe Skies says that continued construction on the base will further distribute the PFAS compounds through simple airborne dissemination throughout the construction process. 

FMI: www.ng.wi.gov