Cherry Point renews effort to expand bombing range

Marines want more time and space to use bigger ammunition for training around the Piney Island bombing range in Carteret County.

And they want to expand the restricted areas around the range to do it.

Cherry Point officials plan to submit a request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today that would expand the area of water prohibited to civilians between 4 and 11 p.m. for a maximum of five consecutive weekdays a month from February through November around Bombing Target 11, said Maj. Aisha M. Bakkar, public information officer at Cherry Point.

No weekend days would be affected.

“Intermittent expansion of the BT-11 prohibited area is critical to optimize public safety and military training, and to protect any vessels that operate in the vicinity of BT-11,” Bakkar said in release. “The additional 3,360-acre water area would be temporarily removed from public use a maximum of 50 seven-hour periods per year. This equates to 350 hours per year, or approximately 4 percent of the year.”

If there are no live-fire training requests, the waters would not be closed.

The move comes after base officials had suspended their original request in September for six months, citing the need to further explain the reason behind the request to state and local officials as well as the public.

Some, especially recreational boaters and commercial fishermen, oppose the intermittent expansion, saying it would take away valuable areas of public water that some use for enjoyment and others use to make a living.

Cherry Point prepared an environmental assessment analyzing the impacts of military training operations at the bombing range in compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Public information meetings were held in Carteret and Pamlico counties in October 2008 and a ‘no significant impact’ was signed by the air station commander in February of 2009.

The request to approve the intermittent expansion was submitted in April but then suspended in September.

BT-11 is in northeastern Carteret County, with Cedar Island and the waters of Pamlico Sound to its east and the Neuse River and the border of Pamlico County to the west. It has been used along with other nearby water areas for similar training since the early 1940s and is being used now.

There is no timetable for the Corps of Engineers to take action on the matter.