MOORE CALLS ON COUNCIL OF STATE TO TAKE A STAND ON OLF
With the Navy Still Fixated on Controversial Site, Moore Calls for United Stand
RALEIGH – With the Navy asserting its continued preference for a controversial site in Washington County for an outlying landing field (OLF), State Treasurer Richard Moore today called on the Council of State to oppose the site. At today’s Council of State meeting, Moore proposed a resolution opposing the so-called “Site C.”
“With the Navy continuing to focus on an OLF in Washington County, I think it is imperative that the Council of State say clearly, and with one voice, that this is the wrong decision,” Moore said. “Here in North Carolina, we are fiercely supportive of our military, but we must ensure that any decision made on the OLF is done in a comprehensive and careful fashion. The Beaufort-Washington County site is not the right site for our State or for the Navy.”
The Navy’s preferred site, or “Site C,” has been the subject of concern because of its proximity to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, a feeding ground and flyway for tens of thousands of migratory birds. Military bird-strike experts have determined that there is a high possibility for collisions. Scientific experts, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have determined that this project would be in direct conflict with the mission of a wildlife sanctuary.
At last month’s public hearing on the OLF in Charlotte, Moore issued a letter to the Navy saying that the site “has the potential to be an environmental disaster.”
And at the Council of State meeting later in the day, our statewide elected officials voted unanimously to draft a resolution in opposition, to be passed at a future meeting.
Thank you to all of them for their leadership on this important issue.
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