DATE: Saturday, September 13, 1997          TAG: 9709130335

SECTION: FRONT                   PAGE: A1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: STAFF REPORT

DATELINE: NORFOLK                           LENGTH:   59 lines

OCEANA EXPANSION NOW RESTS WITH EPA IT WILL BE MONTHS BEFORE A DECISION COMES.

The Navy took a long step toward moving 180 attack jets from a Florida base to Oceana Naval Air Station Friday, delivering its assessment of how the move would affect Virginia Beach and Chesapeake to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Spokesmen for the Atlantic Fleet said Navy representatives carried a 5-inch-thick report to the EPA's Washington headquarters at midday, kicking off a chain of events that could culminate with Oceana growing into the world's largest base of fighters and attack planes.

The environmental impact statement predicts how an influx of F/A-18 Hornets would affect air quality, noise levels, safety from air crashes, land use, traffic and other aspects of life in the neighborhoods ringing Oceana and Chesapeake's Fentress Naval Landing Field.

It concludes that moving all 180 Hornets to Virginia Beach from Cecil Field, Fla. - which is shutting down on orders of the Base Realignment and Closure Commission, or BRAC - would make the most sense for the Navy and bring thousands of new taxpayers to South Hampton Roads.

But moving all 11 of Cecil Field's squadrons to Oceana would come at some cost to the quality of life around Oceana and Fentress, a runway used by Oceana's air squadrons to practice carrier-deck landings, the report acknowledges.

Areas of high aircraft noise and ``accident potential zones'' ringing the bases would grow. Schools and other high-density development would be affected. Congestion on local roads would worsen, at least in the short term.

Moving 180 jets here is one of five alternatives examined in the statement, which also assesses the impact of splitting the Florida jets between Oceana and air stations in North and South Carolina.

None of the alternatives can become fact, however, without the EPA's blessing.

Officers at the Atlantic Fleet's Norfolk headquarters said Friday that the Navy turned over the report in the expectation that it will be published next Friday in the Federal Register, a publication that serves as a bulletin board of planned government action, among other things.

If that schedule holds firm, the Federal Register will run an announcement that the document is available, and directing those interested to places where they can read or obtain a copy.

Locally, the Navy's assessment will be available for inspection at the Virginia Beach and Chesapeake central libraries, the Navy said.

Copies also been mailed to libraries in Havelock, N.C., and Beaufort, S.C., homes to Marine Corps air stations that would gain a few of the transferred squadrons under the report's less-favored alternatives.

The Federal Register announcement will begin a 45-day period for the public to comment on the Navy's assessment. Those comments will be folded into a final version of the report over the following 90 days.

At some point during or after that 90-day stretch, a second, 30-day public comment period has to be held on the report's final version.

The upshot: The EPA won't issue a decision on the transfers until at least 135 days - or 4 1/2 months - after the Federal Register's announcement is published. KEYWORDS: JETS OCEANA NAVY

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