DATE: Thursday, September 11, 1997          TAG: 9709110445

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY DALE EISMAN, STAFF WRITER

DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:  101 lines

NAVY: SEND OCEANA ALL 180 JETS: MILITARY IMPACT

The Navy's plan to base 180 additional F/A-18 Hornet jets in Virginia Beach is the best of several alternatives for relocating the planes from Florida but would put 22 schools and the homes of almost 39,000 residents into high-noise zones, the Navy said Wednesday.

A long-awaited environmental assessment of the move said transferring all the planes to Oceana Naval Air Station remains ``the Navy's preferred alternative'' because it would be cheaper and more efficient than any of several plans to divide the jets between Oceana and facilities in North or South Carolina.

``The net benefit to the community is tremendous'' if all the planes are sent to Oceana, said Virginia Beach Mayor Meyera E. Oberndorf. She promised to work with the Navy to minimize any environmental problems the transfer might create.

The Navy will have to spend about $250 million, spread over 30 years, to complete the transfer, the report said. The city estimates the move will add 5,000 jobs to the local economy, with annual salaries and benefits worth an average of $6,000 more than the current local average.

The Navy said it could not estimate how much the city might have to spend to keep noise levels in the 22 schools at 45 decibels or less, the desired level. It volunteered to help the city ``conduct detailed engineering evaluations at schools of particular concern.''

Transferring all 180 Hornets to Oceana would increase noise levels in the schools from 6 to 20 decibels, the report said, but the use of central air conditioning and closed windows ``normally reduces interior noise levels by 25 decibels.''

Any of the alternatives outlined in an executive summary of the Navy report would bring at least 120 additional F/A-18s to Oceana. The summary suggested that most of the environmental impact that would be felt from a transfer of all 180 Hornets to Oceana also would be attached to a move of only 120.

Even if all the planes move to Oceana, the report said, pollution from their exhausts ``would not (have) a significant impact'' on air quality.

Additional employment at the base would add to auto traffic in the vicinity, the report added, particularly on Oceana Boulevard between Bells Road and Princess Anne Road, but several projects already planned ``would reduce traffic congestion.''

Local officials and U.S. Rep. Owen B. Pickett were briefed on the five-inch-thick report in Washington last week, and received copies Wednesday.

Publication of the report in the Federal Register, expected soon, will trigger the beginning of a 135-day period for public comments and hearings before the Environmental Protection Agency makes a final decision on whether to permit the transfer.

Only the 17-page executive summary of the report was released to reporters Wednesday, so the exact boundaries of the new high-noise and ``Accident Potential Zones'' - areas where a plane in distress most likely would crash - remained a mystery.

There has not been an off-base crash in the Oceana area since May 1986, when an A-6E Intruder fell into a car on Oceana Boulevard, killing both crew members and a 25-year-old pregnant woman driving the car.

While the new noise zones would impact almost 39,000 residents, the report suggested that changes in flight operations would lower noise levels now experienced by 10,345 people living near the base.

Pickett said his initial scan of the report found nothing to suggest that problems stemming from the transfer can't be solved. The report validated his and others' support for putting all the planes and the infrastructure that services them in one place, Pickett said.

Dividing the planes between Oceana and either of two Marine Corps bases - at Cherry Point, N.C., or Beaufort, S.C. - would force the Navy to pay and equip two sets of mechanics, maintain two inventories of spare parts and duplicate other support functions, Pickett said.

The Navy must find a new home for the F/A-18s because it is closing Cecil Field near Jacksonville. Pickett, Virginia Beach officials and an assortment of business leaders have lobbied aggressively to transfer the planes to Oceana; their arguments persuaded an independent base-closing commission to recommend the move in 1995.

But officials in Cherry Point, where most of the Cecil Field Hornets originally were scheduled to go, have continued to fight to bring at least some of the planes to their community. They have threatened legal action to block the proposed transfers to Oceana and are expected to continue their efforts despite the Navy's recommendation.

Environmental damage the transfer to Oceana could cause, including increases in noise and additional pollution from aircraft exhausts and the autos of those who would fly and take care of the planes, has been one of Cherry Point's principal arguments against the Navy's proposal.

The report said either of two alternatives that would send some of the Hornets to Cherry Point would require construction of a repair facility for the planes, as well as hangar renovations and alternations to the aircraft apron.

Moving 60 of the F/A-18s to Cherry Point, the maximum the report considered, also would require construction of a new medical clinic, a child development center and an additional 8,000-foot runway, the report said.

The report said that alternative would cost $519 million, more than double the cost of moving all the planes to Oceana. An alternative that would send 24 planes to the North Carolina base, and 156 to Oceana, would cost $283 million, $33 million more than the Oceana-alone option. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]

If the Navy's preferred plan to move 180 F/A-18 Hornets to Oceana is

approved, the base will house about 380 aircraft including the F-14

Tomcat, above. that would surpass the 1990 all-time high of about

374 aircraft at Oceana.

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