By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — Federal and state lawmakers are urging the U.S. Air Force to reexamine its plans for new low-level training flights — some supersonic — above several large swaths of Arizona.

In a letter Monday, Congressman Raul Grijalva said there is a “lack of transparency” by the Air Force in how it prepared its draft environmental impact statement.

“The proposed action favored by the Department of the Air Force, which would allow increased frequency of low-altitude and supersonic operations as well as flares and chaff across all Military Operations Areas presents significant concerns for constituents in my congressional district,” he wrote to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall III.

Grijalva, a Democrat, said many of these are the same concerns expressed during the 2022 “scoping period” which he said “received no response.”

His complaint comes a week after state Rep. David Cook sent his own letter to the Air Force saying he believes plans outlined in the draft environmental impact statement fail to take into account the chances that what would be allowed could cause devastating wildfires.

The Globe Republican acknowledged the document says restricting the use of flares based on local fire conditions is a “best management practice.” Only thing is, he said, it’s not actually codified in the plans “and simply leaves the decision whether to implement such constraints to the discretion of each unit’s wing commander.”

For Cook, the issue is personal. He said the draft environmental statement does not rule out that the 2021 Telegraph Fire that burned more than 180,00 acres — including fences and a cabin on the property he ranches — was caused by flares.

It comes as the Center for Biological Diversity has sued the Air Force, saying it has gotten no response to its own requests for public information about the plan.

At the heart of the issue are arguments by the Air Force that it needs to address “training deficiencies associated with insufficient airspace.”

“The existing Military Operations Areas in this region were chartered decades ago for pilot training with aircraft no longer in use,” according to the Air Force. The bottom line, its plans say, is ensuring pilots are trained for a “real world” mission that includes both low-level operations and the ability to operate there at supersonic speeds.

Any airspace limitation, it says “threatens aircrew survivability and mission readiness.”

What the Air Force is proposing varies.

There’s the Tombstone Military Operations Area, which spans an area along the border from Bisbee far into New Mexico. Plans being considered would allow flights as low as 100 feet above ground level.

But it also would permit supersonic operations at 5,000 feet. A typical commercial jet, operating subsonic, normally flies between 35,000 and 40,000 feet.

It also would allow the release of both flares and “chaff” — materials that include small pieces of metal or plastic designed to confuse radar — at just 2,000 feet, versus the current 5,000-foot restriction.

In that Tombstone training area, at least under one option, the military operation area would be expanded by nearly 800 square miles to 4,766 square miles.

Some other areas have smaller changes proposed, such as the 1,410 square mile area around Yarnell, Congress and Bagdad. There, flights could be 500 feet above ground, though there would be no change in current rules that allow supersonic operations at 10,000 feet. But there would be a 2,000-foot restriction on flares and chaff.

In the 6,200 square mile area that runs from Three Points and Arivaca through most of the Tohono O’odham Reservation, the biggest change appears to be to allow training flights from 6 a.m. through midnight; now the cutoff is 7 p.m.

And the MOA from just east of Florence, through Miami, Safford and Clifton into New Mexico would see supersonic authorization at 5,000 feet and regular flights at 500 feet in the 2,627 square mile area.

“Constituents across southern Arizona and New Mexico have reported hundreds of nuisance flight incidents in violation of Federal Aviation Administration regulations underneath and near the MOAs, causing significant disturbances and a variety of health and wellness impacts,” Grijalva wrote.

The congressman said that, to date, the Air Force has yet to schedule any public hearings in Cochise County despite what he said is a proposed “doubling of annual sorties.” Nor have there been public hearings on tribal lands, Grijalva said.

There also is, he said, the failure of the Air Force to respond to the public records lawsuit “as well as hundreds of nuisance flight reports.” And Grijalva said there are 6,667 public comments that the Air Force has kept internal.

Then there’s the impact to areas managed by everything from the Forest Service to the Bureau of Land Management, all homes to “a unique and diverse array of flora and fauna.”

“Department of Air Force’s insistence that the proposed action is ‘compatible’ with land uses beneath the Military Operations Areas despite ‘reportable’ noise increases, potential disturbance to wildlife and domestic animals anticipated, and nuisance flights reported under the status quo, is inconsistent with the views of local communities and some tribes,” he said.

Cook, for his part, has a narrower concern: the potential for devastating fires caused by the use of flares.

The Air Force, in its own assessment, says the possibility “would be remote considering the release altitude.” Cook was not comforted by that.

“History has shown that flares have been tied to wildfire occurrences, including the 2021 Telegraph Fire, which burned over 180,000 acres for nearly a month,” he wrote to the Air Force. Nor was he convinced by a statement that the Air Force believes it is “unlikely” that fire was caused by flares.

“The cause of the Telegraph Fire has not been fully resolved,” Cook said. “And the draft environmental impact statement does not rule out the possibility that flares were responsible for the fire.”

Cook said Monday he has not gotten a response from the Air Force. Nor does he expect to, saying the purpose of his letter was to force the military to take the issue into consideration.

But Cook, who lost his bid in August to move to the Senate, said submitting a comment does give him standing to challenge the final decision of the agency if he believes it does not take the concerns into consideration.

The Center for Biological Diversity is still waiting for a response from the Air Force to its lawsuit.

“USAF’s failure to comply with FOIA harms the Center’s ability to provide full, accurate, and current information to the public on a matter of significant public interest,” wrote attorney Trisha Sharma in the lawsuit filed in May.

“Without this information, the Center cannot advance its mission, with its members, to protect native species and their habitat.”

The lawsuit asks U.S. District Court Judge Rosemary Marquez to order the Air Force to conduct a search “reasonably calculated” to locate all the records responsive to the request. It also seeks cutoff date for getting the records.