August 21, 1998
(AP) - A U.S. Navy study of Pacific home ports recommends that the North Island Naval Station house two more nuclear aircraft carriers in addition to the John C. Stennis.
A final decision is expected early next year.
The Navy is concentrating its shrinking fleet of carriers in a few locations. North Island now is home to the conventionally powered Constellation, but the 27-year-old carrier is expected to be decommissioned sometime soon.
A draft environmental impact report recommends developing facilities at North Island to host two additional carriers. The John C. Stennis is finishing its first deployment and is expected to arrive in San Diego Aug. 26, said Capt. Rocklun Deal, project officer for the home port study.
The ports of Bremerton and Everett, Wash., and Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, also were considered for a total of five nuclear carriers expected to be assigned to the Pacific in the next decade, he said.
The additional carriers could be the Nimitz, undergoing a three-year maintenance program in Norfolk, Va., and the new carrier, Ronald Reagan, expected to be completed in 2005.
The Abraham Lincoln, now deployed in the Persian Gulf and based in Everett, could be one of the carriers assigned to San Diego, Deal said. The Carl Vinson, the fifth Pacific nuclear carrier, is based in Bremerton.
Nuclear submarines have been home-ported in San Diego Bay for more than 10 years.
Deal said the final decision will be made by the Navy secretary after completion of the last environmental impact statement, expected in early 1999.
The home port study will be available in about 10 days at San Diego County libraries, and a Navy World Wide Web site still under development.
Deal suggested one reason San Diego Bay appeals to naval planners is because maintenance and support facilities already are in place at North Island.
``If the decision is made to bring two additional nuclear carriers here, (these facilities) would be able, with some modification and addition, to handle that load,'' Deal said.
Diane Takvorian, Environmental Health Coalition executive director, warned concerned citizens to join her group's protest of the Stennis' arrival next week.
``San Diegans who were not paying attention in 1995 when the Navy claimed that only one nuclear aircraft carrier was coming to San Diego Bay need to get involved in the process now, because San Diego will be a Navy nuclear megaport,'' Takvorian said.
``We believe this may be the largest concentration of nuclear-powered naval vessels in the world, and the risks to public health and the environment are going to be tremendous,'' she said.
The risks, Takvorian said, include radioactive leaks, new onshore hazardous waste facilities, and radiation releases from onshore maintenance facilities.
Deal said the Navy wants to put the issue before the public during hearings to be held in September.
The Navy estimates an annual payroll of $126 million for a nuclear-powered carrier, but the Greater San Diego Chamber of Commerce has estimated the total economic impact of a single aircraft carrier at about $230 million a year.
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