Marines still seek more training space, time at bombing target

CHERRY POINT — Marines want more time and space to use bigger ammunition for training around Bombing Target 11 at Piney Island.

Cherry Point air station officials plan to submit a request to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Thursday. The request will seek to expand the area of water prohibited to civilians between 4 p.m. 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. 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.

Cherry Point air station prepared an environmental assessment analyzing the impacts of military training operations there 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 2009.

The request to approve the intermittent expansion of the water prohibited area was submitted in April 2009 but suspended in September for six months in order to ensure that all those with a stake in the issue had a clear understanding of what was being requested.

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.

Approval by the Corps of Engineers would change Code of Federal Regulations 334.420 Pamlico Sound and adjacent waters, N.C., danger zones for Marine Corps operations. 

Sue Book can be reached at 252-635-5666 or sbook@freedomenc.com.