NORFOLK, Va. (WVEC) -- The idea of oil rigs in the waters where the Navy conducts critical pre-deployment training is worrisome, according to Virginia Senators Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.
The Trump administration proposes to allow oil and gas drilling in the Atlantic Ocean. The drilling would take place in waters where assets from Naval Station Norfolk, Naval Air Station Oceana, Little Creek Amphibious Base and Dam Neck Annex train.
Seventy-two percent of that area is exactly where a 2015 Pentagon assessment said there should be no oil and gas activity.
The senators sent a letter to Secretary of Defense James Mattis.
They wrote: "We are concerned that allowing offshore drilling in this area would create new challenges for the region's DOD installations, and the activities taking places on and around these waters. "
They also ask if the Department has conducted a comprehensive study assessing the specific challenges the proposed five-year drilling plan may create for military activities in the region.
"This has been a longstanding issue. D.o.D. has been consistently opposed to drilling in its training ranges," said retired Navy captain Joe Bouchard of Virginia Beach, who is a former commanding officer of Naval Station Norfolk, and he was c.o. of a destroyer.
He went on to say: "The Navy and the other services also train with live ordnance out there, a variety of missiles, bombs, automatic weapons and it would be very dangerous to have oil rigs in the vicinity of that live ordnance training."
Warner, Kaine Call on Trump Administration to Examine Risks of Offshore Drilling on Military Assets in Hamp... by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine on Scribd