WASHINGTON - The White House has exempted the Navy from complying with two major environmental laws in an effort to free the service from a federal court's decision limiting the Navy's use of sonar in training exercises.
Environmentalists who had sued successfully to limit the use of loud, mid-frequency sonar - which can be harmful to whales and other marine mammals - said the exemptions were unprecedented and could lead to a larger legal battle over the extent to which the military has to follow environmental laws.
In a court filing yesterday, government attorneys said President Bush had determined that allowing the use of mid-frequency sonar in ongoing exercises off Southern California was "essential to national security."
Based on those conclusions, the documents said, Bush issued the order exempting the Navy from provisions of the Coastal Zone Management Act, and the White House Council on Environmental Quality granted an exemption to the National Environmental Policy Act.
The filings said the federal ruling limiting sonar use "profoundly interferes with the Navy's global management of US strategic forces, its ability to conduct warfare operations, and ultimately places the lives of American sailors and Marines at risk."
The exemptions were immediately challenged by the environmental group that had sued the Navy and by the California Coastal Commission, a state agency that ruled last year the Navy's plans to protect marine mammals were too limited and deeply flawed.
"There is absolutely no justification for this," Commissioner Sara Wan said in a statement. "Both the court and the Coastal Commission have said that the Navy can carry out its mission as well as protect the whales. This is a slap in the face to Californians who care about the oceans."
Joel Reynolds, attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the organization would "vigorously" contest the White House orders in court.
Federal District Court Judge Florence-Marie Cooper ruled earlier this month in Los Angeles that the Navy's plan to limit harm to whales - especially deep-diving beaked whales that have at times stranded and died after Navy sonar exercises - were "grossly inadequate to protect marine mammals from debilitating levels of sonar exposure." A federal appeals court had previously ruled as well that the Navy plan was inadequate and sent the case back to Cooper to set new guidelines.
In her ruling, she banned sonar use within 12 nautical miles of the coast and required numerous procedures to cut off sonar use when marine mammals are spotted.
The Navy had already received a federal exemption from the Marine Mammal Protection Act for the exercises, which are scheduled to continue through January 2009, but the Natural Resources group and other organizations filed suit under other environmental laws. The Navy will still have to convince federal judges that the exemptions are legal.
