SEAL BEACH : Navy Study Draws Fire From Residents

Residents of Seal Beach and surrounding communities blasted the Navy at a public hearing in Long Beach this week, chiding officials for ignoring their concerns in an environmental impact study on the home-porting of large ships and the expansion of Anaheim Bay.

“If you were not going to do an environmental impact study on the effect to Seal Beach, then you should have just left it out,” said Gordon LaBedz, chairman of Stop the Breakwater, a group of surfers, environmentalists, real estate agents and others who oppose the Navy’s proposed expansion of Anaheim Bay for safety, aesthetic and environmental reasons.

“This project is going to destroy our beaches. We love our beaches. People come from all over the world to see our beaches,” said LaBedz, also a member of the Surfrider Foundation.

The recently released study indicates that the Navy is more likely to home-port the supply class AOE-6 ships in Bremerton, Wash., than in Southern California. According to the Navy, if the ships were based in Long Beach or San Diego, a $200-million expansion of Anaheim Bay would be necessary. The project would include dredging the bay and building a 4,000-foot extension of the east jetty to allow for the loading and unloading of weapons.

Because the ships are more likely to be based in Bremerton, most of Thursday night’s presentation by the Navy was about the potential impact on Puget Sound, which did not sit well with the more than 60 people who had come to hear about effects on Seal Beach and surrounding communities.

Robert C. Esenwein, project director for the consulting company that prepared the report, said the impact on Seal Beach will be explored more fully if a specific proposal to base the ships in Southern California is made.