A friend has sent me a petition against the Department of Defense Navy Floating radar dome. He states "You have probably heard the Defense Department wants to put a huge floating radardome in the harbor in Everett. As you know, the Snohomish River System is one of the lowest fish producers on Puget Sound. The bottom paint has a sterilizing effect on the estuary where tthe young salmon and steelhead feed." Anybody heard of this? I have petitions to mail. You do not have to be a registered voter to sign. It reads "Petition-We, the undersigned, oppose the Department of Defense proposal to use Naval Station Everett or Port Gardner Bay, Everett WA, as Primary Support Base for the Sea-Based Test X-Band Radar. We oppose this location for the SBX Testing or as a Permanent Primary Support Base." What are your thoughts?

the bottom paint on that radar dome would be a "drop in the bucket" compared to the rest of the moored boats out there with anti-fouling paint working its magic on puget sound.

it would be interesting to know which environmental group is behind that petition.

Usually its about esthetics and the people on the bluffs are the biggest opponents. The bottom paint thing is just blowing smoke. Personally I dont think that platform will be any more of an eye sore than say the big silver dome already there. Now if they anchor it right in the middle of my favorite silver hole, thats a different story - wheres the petition

I haven't done anything with the petition yet because I am not sure of the bottom paint issue. I have never heard of this before. I know there will be some sort of tactic to keep this off of the water front as they are going to rebuild the Everett Waterfront. The bottom of the petition is signed "Concerned Citizens Against the SBX." I am not against it at this point. If it is not healthy for the fish just up close, then move it to an area that doesn't effect them. I have to agree as there are usually lots of barges out there and boats in the marina that I am sure have the same bottom paint. I will email the guy who sent it and ask where he got the info. I do not want to be a messenger for bad info with a hidden agenda.

will the coast guard enforce a boundary around this? it is unusual that one can get within a certain distance of any military equiptment. who cares about the bottom paint! the navy does not follow any federal regulations regarding the environment that it does not want to. environmentalists divers that have dove around the bremerton base collect large amounts of data that show how radioactive and polluted with heavy metals the water is. they are arrested when they surface. with the attitude the navy has about our fisheries they can go screw themselves. if one nuclear sub from bangor has a melt down, we will lose all of our fisheries in the puget sound forever. if the navy wants to change its attitude towards our fisheries, then maybe we can help them find a spot for their lil radar. use any regulation you can to protect our fisheries... trust me you are not sacrificing the security of your country to do so. maybe the issue is why are these other boats allowed to use toxic paints for barnacle protection when there are alternatives other than fishery wrecking toxins.

Chappy...They use the toxic crap 'cuz it works great and in the long run its cheaper than anything else. Of course their long term does not take into account any enviromental damage. To them it makes economic sense, and saves tens of millions a year. Just like dredging and capping the area around the base in Bremerton. The Navy is pretty proud of that one. Somewhere in the big scheme they kinda forgot the part that in that process they managed to spread that crap as far as the current would carry it and now instead of having a localized problem the whole inlet is a dump.

here is a take for ya..

I managed a contract where I was on-site at a local "new" navy base. We managed all Haz/Waste generated at this base.
I tell ya they were very anal on ensuring that all (ALL) aplicable local, state and federal mandates were followed. I would even sample sludge at all of the outfalls going into the bay. If there was any detect of contamination. We had the entire sump pumped and shipped out.

I could go on and on about over kill we would do in managaing envirionmental wastes they produced..
On the other hand I do not know what took place out on the high seas, but I always know when the ships returned they always had waste to off-load to us. So they were not dumping it all over board..

That same anti-fowling paint is on every other freighter, tug, barge etc. out there..

I say bring the dome! it wont ruin any views of the folks up on the bluff. If they didnt want a industrial harbor view they shouldnt have moved there, thats the way that place has always been, an active industrial harbor. They didnt snibble and moan when that Russian (ugly) freighter was stuck in the harbor out there for months.. That thing was probally dumping all sorts of crap in the bay and all these folks were delivering their warm and fuzzies because they felt sorry for them..