A 25-story seagoing monster may lumber into Everett this fall after being banished to Alaska in 2003 by determined protesters, including many from South Whidbey.
The Navy and the Missile Defense Agency need a deep-water port to work on their Sea-Based X-Band Radar platform (SBX), currently based in Adak, Alaska, in the Aleutian Islands.
Everett is one of only three West Coast ports suitable to the task. Two public meetings next week, one in Langley, will be held to explain the plan and collect community input.
The $1 billion, 280-foot-tall mobile platform, operated by a mostly civilian crew of 80, is designed to detect incoming ballistic missiles. Its powerful radar can track a baseball-size object from a distance of 2,900 miles, according to the Missile Defense Agency.
The only West Coast ports that can handle the planned maintenance are San Diego, Todd Pacific Shipyard in Seattle and Naval Station Everett, officials say.
“No decision has been made,” Kristin Ching, Naval Station Everett spokesperson, said Thursday.
“All three locations are being studied for feasibility,” concurred Pamela Rogers, Missile Defense Agency spokeswoman.
Ching said the agencies hope to begin maintenance in the fall, and that the work would take “three or four months, tops.” But before a site is chosen, local input will be gathered and an environmental assessment made, she said.
Ching said the huge platform’s sophisticated radar systems, other than those required for navigation, would be turned off during maintenance.
She said base officials have scheduled public meetings next week in Everett and Langley to gather comments from the community.
The Langley meeting will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, July 29, in the Langley Middle School cafeteria.
An earlier meeting will be from 5 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, July 27, at Everett Community College’s Whitehorse Hall, Room 105.
“People will definitely have the opportunity to comment,” Ching said.
An uproar arose over the SBX in 2003 when the Missile Defense Agency wanted to homeport the platform at Naval Station Everett.
Everett officials, community members from throughout the area, and eventually Rep. Rick Larsen, opposed the plan, concerned about health hazards and radiation that could hinder airport and emergency services communications.
The platform eventually was deployed to a welcoming Adak.
Rogers said the repair work on the platform can’t be done at Adak because of the weather and inadequate facilities and workforce.
She said the primary focus of the maintenance will be on the vessel’s thrusters, which help propel it through the water. Regular thruster maintenance is required for U.S. Coast Guard certification, she said. Painting, repairing other components and upgrading some internal systems are also planned.
Cost of the proposed work would be about $9.4 million, Rogers said.
She said portions of the work will be open to bid by Puget Sound-area contractors, and that maintenance will be supervised by the Boeing Co., prime contractor for the SBX.
She said the platform would arrive at Everett under its own power, then be pushed to the pier by tugboats.
Rogers said a decision on which port to use will be made once the environmental assessment is complete. If Everett is selected, the SBX would be coordinated with the Navy’s homeported vessels.
For example, the SBX would not come to Everett when the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is in port, she said.
In 2003, dozens of South Whidbey residents attended hearings in Everett on the proposal to station the SBX there. Whidbey Environmental Action Network, an island watchdog group, was in the forefront of the protest.
Marianne Edain of WEAN remains an opponent of the SBX program. On Thursday, she questioned the wisdom of allowing the platform to come to Everett, even for maintenance, and the amount of taxpayer money the program requires, especially in the current poor economy.
“The entire program is bogus and non-useful in the world,” she said. “We need to look very carefully at what’s involved, and the impact on the community.”
