Maine raps Air Guard for study on low-flying jets
PORTLAND, Maine - The Air National Guard is reconsidering its environmental review of a proposal to let fighter jets fly as low as 500 feet over western Maine after getting a failing grade from the governor’s office and attracting attention for using an online encyclopedia as a source of information.
At the request of Governor John Baldacci, the Guard postponed last week’s public hearing on the proposal’s draft environmental impact statement, according to Baldacci’s spokesman, David Farmer.
In a letter asking for the postponement, Baldacci said the study was incomplete. He said it didn’t address the effects of noise on people and wildlife, dangers to other planes flying in the area, bird strikes, or the effect on the Appalachian Trail and its users.
The Air National Guard had hoped to begin the training flights next month.
Farmer said it appeared the Guard merely took an earlier, shorter study and reworked it into the environmental impact statement. The study’s use of Wikipedia, the online encylopedia that anyone can edit, as a source also caught attention, he said.
Lieutenant Colonel Lloyd Goodrow, spokesman for the Vermont Air National Guard, said yesterday that Guard pilots based in Vermont would be among those from several military branches who could use the airspace.
“We’re not the initiator of this process, but we would gain valuable training airspace if this were to happen,’’ he said.
Goodrow referred other questions to a Guard spokesman in Washington, who did not immediately respond to a message left yesterday.
The Air National Guard wants to make the changes in its 4,000-square-mile Condor Military Operation area in western Maine and a small area of northern New Hampshire.
The training area is used primarily by guard units based in Vermont and Massachusetts.
