Sign the Petition- No F-35 s

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Opinion | Now Baldwin should focus on protecting children from F-35s By Tom Boswell

THE CAPITOL TIMES- MADISON WI

Dec 27, 2022

Tom Boswell, Safe Skies Clean Water and Peace Action WI member

It’s great to hear that Sen. Tammy Baldwin advanced gay rights by leading the charge to pass the Respect for Marriage Act. Now we need her to respect the rights of our children to health, safety and a good education. We need to persuade her to forsake her love affair with militarism, Lockheed Martin and the deadly F-35 fighter jets.

I recently read that the U.S. is the only U.N. member country that has failed to ratify the 1989 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. It would be great if Baldwin would adopt this cause as her next challenge. But first she needs to demonstrate she really cares about our children and their welfare.

The U.N. treaty lists 41 rights that all children should enjoy. Many of these universal rights are threatened by the F-35 nuclear-capable killer machines Baldwin wants to foist on the families of Madison’s neighborhoods.

Right No. 29 says our “children’s education should help them fully develop their personalities, talents and abilities” and “help them live peacefully and protect the environment.” The sound of the F-35 is perceived as four times louder than current F-16s at the Truax Field airbase. According to Dr. Ann Behrmann, a pediatrician and leader of Physicians for Social Responsibility, children are more vulnerable to noise due to the size of their ear canals and because they have less control over their environment. Even minimal sensorineural hearing loss has been associated with poor school performance and social and emotional dysfunction.

Noise has been found to negatively affect children’s attention, concentration and memory and, consequently, reading and math achievement. Increasing awareness that chronic exposure to high aircraft noise levels can impair learning led the World Health Organization and NATO to conclude that day care centers and schools should not be located near major sources of noise, such as airports. There are 59 educational programs, pre-school to college, within three miles of Truax.

As for the environment, our children won’t be able to enjoy their school gardens, school forests and playgrounds without being subjected to this noise, not to mention the 100 to 200 million pounds of CO2 each jet will dump on our neighborhoods annually. Their school environment will be a virtual war zone.

Right No. 27 states: “Children have the right to food, clothing and a safe place to live so they can develop in the best possible way.” Adequate food and clothing can be a struggle for low-income people on the north side, but a safe place to live is out of the question if the F-35s arrive. No child will be safe from the noise and other harmful pollutants, whether inside or outdoors.

Right No. 24 attests, “Children have the right to … clean water to drink, healthy food and a clean and safe environment.” Clean water is out of the question, too. The military, (with help from the city and county), has already polluted our drinking water, groundwater, and lakes and streams with PFAS toxic chemicals. It will take decades to clean up.

Right No. 6 says children have a right to life, survival and development, and No. 38 says “children have the right to be protected during war.” Baldwin informs her constituents that the F-35 first-strike jets will make us more “secure.” That’s a lie. Military experts have told Safe Skies Clean Water that, regardless of where the B61-12 nuclear bombs are stored, Madison will now be a target in the event of nuclear war.

Right No. 3 gets to the crux of the matter. It states, “When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children.” It continues: “Governments should make sure that people and places responsible for looking after children are doing a good job.” The senator needs to know we are doing a commendable job in caring for our children. Now it is her turn to step up and do her job.

A Cap Times story noted that Baldwin got a coalition to pass the gay rights bill by listening to the concerns of Republicans. This is truly admirable, but how about listening to the concerns of her constituents here at home? Is it because we lack the funds Lockheed Martin has to get her attention? Or because our children are not as articulate as the lobbyists and arms merchants?

Bernie Sanders just announced he plans to introduce a War Powers Resolution in an attempt to halt the horrific Saudi-led war in Yemen. The war has resulted in more than 375,000 deaths, with 262,500 of those being children under the age of 5, according to the U.N. Sanders notes, “the war has made billions of dollars for companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing, while people in Yemen see 'Made in the USA' on bombs that are destroying their country.”

Let’s hope Baldwin signs on to Sanders’ War Powers Resolution. It would be a good first step. We are a nation based on fear, force and violence. It is probably not possible to embrace these weapons of war, like the F-35, and also care for our children.

Tom Boswell is a community organizer and freelance journalist who lives just west of the Truax Field airbase.

It’s great to hear that Sen. Tammy Baldwin advanced gay rights by leading the charge to pass the Respect for Marriage Act. Now we need her to respect the rights of our children to health, safety and a good education. We need to persuade her to forsake her love affair with militarism, Lockheed Martin and the deadly F-35 fighter jets.

I recently read that the U.S. is the only U.N. member country that has failed to ratify the 1989 U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. It would be great if Baldwin would adopt this cause as her next challenge. But first she needs to demonstrate she really cares about our children and their welfare.

The U.N. treaty lists 41 rights that all children should enjoy. Many of these universal rights are threatened by the F-35 nuclear-capable killer machines Baldwin wants to foist on the families of Madison’s neighborhoods.

Right No. 29 says our “children’s education should help them fully develop their personalities, talents and abilities” and “help them live peacefully and protect the environment.” The sound of the F-35 is perceived as four times louder than current F-16s at the Truax Field airbase. According to Dr. Ann Behrmann, a pediatrician and leader of Physicians for Social Responsibility, children are more vulnerable to noise due to the size of their ear canals and because they have less control over their environment. Even minimal sensorineural hearing loss has been associated with poor school performance and social and emotional dysfunction.

Noise has been found to negatively affect children’s attention, concentration and memory and, consequently, reading and math achievement. Increasing awareness that chronic exposure to high aircraft noise levels can impair learning led the World Health Organization and NATO to conclude that day care centers and schools should not be located near major sources of noise, such as airports. There are 59 educational programs, pre-school to college, within three miles of Truax.

As for the environment, our children won’t be able to enjoy their school gardens, school forests and playgrounds without being subjected to this noise, not to mention the 100 to 200 million pounds of CO2 each jet will dump on our neighborhoods annually. Their school environment will be a virtual war zone.

Right No. 27 states: “Children have the right to food, clothing and a safe place to live so they can develop in the best possible way.” Adequate food and clothing can be a struggle for low-income people on the north side, but a safe place to live is out of the question if the F-35s arrive. No child will be safe from the noise and other harmful pollutants, whether inside or outdoors.

Right No. 24 attests, “Children have the right to … clean water to drink, healthy food and a clean and safe environment.” Clean water is out of the question, too. The military, (with help from the city and county), has already polluted our drinking water, groundwater, and lakes and streams with PFAS toxic chemicals. It will take decades to clean up.

Right No. 6 says children have a right to life, survival and development, and No. 38 says “children have the right to be protected during war.” Baldwin informs her constituents that the F-35 first-strike jets will make us more “secure.” That’s a lie. Military experts have told Safe Skies Clean Water that, regardless of where the B61-12 nuclear bombs are stored, Madison will now be a target in the event of nuclear war.

Right No. 3 gets to the crux of the matter. It states, “When adults make decisions, they should think about how their decisions will affect children.” It continues: “Governments should make sure that people and places responsible for looking after children are doing a good job.” The senator needs to know we are doing a commendable job in caring for our children. Now it is her turn to step up and do her job.

A Cap Times story noted that Baldwin got a coalition to pass the gay rights bill by listening to the concerns of Republicans. This is truly admirable, but how about listening to the concerns of her constituents here at home? Is it because we lack the funds Lockheed Martin has to get her attention? Or because our children are not as articulate as the lobbyists and arms merchants?

Bernie Sanders just announced he plans to introduce a War Powers Resolution in an attempt to halt the horrific Saudi-led war in Yemen. The war has resulted in more than 375,000 deaths, with 262,500 of those being children under the age of 5, according to the U.N. Sanders notes, “the war has made billions of dollars for companies like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing, while people in Yemen see 'Made in the USA' on bombs that are destroying their country.”

Let’s hope Baldwin signs on to Sanders’ War Powers Resolution. It would be a good first step. We are a nation based on fear, force and violence. It is probably not possible to embrace these weapons of war, like the F-35, and also care for our children.

Tom Boswell is a community organizer and freelance journalist who lives just west of the Truax Field airbase.

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Safe Skies Submits Final F-35 Fighter Jets Lawsuit Brief over the Environmental Impact Statement

December 12, 2022

On March 10, 2021, Safe Skies with Kathleen Henry as our attorney filed suit in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia against the Air Force, claiming their EIS for the F-35 fighter jets to be deployed to Truax Field in Madison was inadequate. We told the court the Air Force needed to stop the project including construction at Truax Field until the Air Force addressed the problems with the EIS.

On September 24, 2021, Safe Skies asked the judge to allow us to expand the record for the EIS which was already 70,000 pages. We wanted to provide newer information on the impacts of noise exposure, the extent of the PFAS contamination by the Air National Guard and their failure to clean it up. It wasn’t until this year on September 30, 2022 that the judge ruled we could not expand the record, and required us to submit our file arguments by December 12th.

Today we submitted our final brief and arguments. This included affidavits from people affected by noise and PFAS, Ed Blume and Tehmina Islam, and myself representing Safe Skies and providing new opinions about environmental impacts. We were able to incorporate some more recent information like the results of the FAA neighborhood environmental survey which shows the 65 dB DNL noise standard used in the EIS (and the recent county airport noise modeling) was inadequate. We also included the USEPA decision last summer to lower the allowable PFAS in water to levels that are 1,000 to 10,000 times lower than the DNR standard.

Our supporting brief or memorandum is attached. Below are conclusions we want the judge to accept.

We are feeling confident because last August another federal district judge ruled against the Navy for the EIS it prepared for the growler jets on Whidbey Island near Seattle. “A U.S. District Court judge ruled Tuesday that the Navy violated federal law in an environmental study of expanded Whidbey Island jet operations that failed to quantify the noise impacts on classroom learning as well as other shortcomings.”

The Air Force is using attorneys at the Department of Justice. They have 45 days to respond to the attached brief, then we have about 15 days to reply, then DOJ has 15 days to reply, and then (about February 25th) the Court has everything on which to decide.

***

WHEREFORE, Plaintiff respectfully requests that the Court grant its motion for summary judgment and enter judgment:

1. Declaring that:

A. Defendants, in issuing an EIS and ROD, failed to comply with NEPA by having a predetermined outcome;
B. Defendants failed to take a hard look at detrimental noise impacts in violation of NEPA and its implementing regulations;
C. Defendants violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider the cumulative impacts of increased PFAS on already-polluted drinking, ground surface water and fish in the Starkweather Creek and Yahara chain of lakes watersheds water;
D. Defendants violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider environmental justice impacts in violation of NEPA and its implementing regulations;
E. Defendants violated NEPA by failing to take a hard look at air quality impacts of the F-35As;
F. Defendants violated NEPA by failing to adequately address alternatives;
G. Defendants violated NEPA by failing to adequately consider climate change;
H. Defendants violated NEPA and the APA by failing to provide adequate notice and public participation;
I. Defendants violated NEPA and the APA by failing to produce a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement;
J. Defendants violated NEPA by failing to take a hard look at impacts on wildlife in violation of NEPA and its implementing regulations;
K. Defendants violated the APA by failing to comply with NEPA; and
L. Defendants’ actions and proposals are arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion, in excess of statutory jurisdiction, authority, and limitations, without observance of procedure required by law, unsupported by substantial evidence and unwarranted by the facts, in violation of the APA.

2. Enjoining the defendants and all others acting in concert with them from carrying on or permitting any activities in furtherance of the construction of the Proposed Action until such time as the defendants prepare an adequate EIS and a supplemental EIS, the sufficiency of the environmental impact statements to be determined by this Court.

3. Awarding plaintiff such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper, including costs, attorneys’ fees, expert witness fees and other expenses of litigation;  Awarding such other relief as the Court deems just and proper.

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No F-35 Letter Released

International Coalition Calls On Biden To End F-35 Program

 

An international coalition of anti-F-35 activists gathered virtually today, announcing an open letter calling on President Biden to end the manufacturing and training of F-35 fighter jets. The letter, organized by CodePink, a national grassroots anti-war organization, is signed by over 220 organizations across the world, including dozens in Madison and Wisconsin. 

The letter calls on President Biden and members of Congress to end the F-35 program, remove the jets from residential neighborhoods, and end the sale of jets to foreign companies.

This comes as F-35 fighter jets  are scheduled to bed down at Truax Field, on Madison’s northside, in spring 2023. The National Guard’s 115th Fighter Wing based at Truax is one of the first units across the country to fly the F-35s, the latest version of the jets. But that beddown is coming despite immense community pushback. For years, activists have pushed back on the noise, pollution, and security of having the jets based on Madison’s north side. 

According to the Air National Guard’s own  final environmental impact statement released in  2020, replacing the recently-departed F-16 jets at Truax Airfield with F-35 jets will not come quietly. While the impact statement showed that around 2,700 people would be subjected to an average sound level of around 65 decibels, or around the volume of a vacuum, the report does not outline how loud the jets will be when landing or takeoff. 

Speaking at today’s press conference was Ben Cohen, co-founder of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream. Ben and Jerry’s  is headquartered in Burlington, Vermont –where F-35 jets first touched down near a residential neighborhood in 2019, despite a similar level of community campaigning to stop the jets from coming. 

According to a 2012 environmental impact statement for the F-35 program in Burlington, the noise level for an F-35 on takeoff is estimated at 115 decibels, louder than a car horn and a rock concert, and just quieter than a siren. Prolonged exposure to noise over 85 decibels can cause permanent hearing loss. Exposure to noise above 120 decibels for more than half a minute can cause hearing loss.

Cohen says that, when the jets came to Vermont, he created a plan to help residents know just how loud they would be.

“The extreme level of noise is a little loud to understand, you can hear decibel numbers but nobody can really relate to it. We created a mobile sound truck that replicated the sound of a F-35, and we were driving it around and the police call-in numbers lit up from complaints in the community, and I was arrested for violating the noise ordinance. It showed that the level of noise was illegal, but the Pentagon gets an exception,” Cohen says. 

But the F-35s still landed in Vermont, where thousands of people lived within the noise-affected area, considered generally unsuitable for residential use by the US Air Force. 

The letter points to a variety of health impacts of the jets beyond hearing loss – causing low birth weights in newborns, delayed speech development, and difficulties with concentration. Vicki Berenson with Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin was one of the speakers today. She says she’s worried for the people who live around the airport when the F-35s land on Madison’s north side in just a few months.

“I know people who have sold their homes and moved away in anticipation of the F-35s arrival next year. Loud jets, and we have been told that there will be 40% more flights than the F-16s that have been here for years. Not everyone has the means to move, the airbase is located in one of the only remaining affordable neighborhoods in Madison, so there is nowhere to go if you up and sell,” Berenson says. 

Taxpayer cost of the jets is another issue mentioned in CodePink’s letter. The letter says that, as of today, the total cost for the country’s F-35 project is $1.7 trillion, most of which stems from the costs of operations and maintenance over the next 66 years.

The letter points to a report from the US Government Accountability Office, or GAO, informally known as the congressional watchdog. The report, published in April of this year, says that even if the Department of Defense stays on schedule with the program (they are currently behind), one-third of the F-35 jets purchased by the department would not undergo full testing, meaning that those jets could potentially see even more maintenance and performance-enhancing costs over time.

 Speaking at the press conference today was Kawthar Abdullah with the Yemeni Alliance Committee, a group of Yemeni organizers working to educate people on the Yemen war. Abdullah says that another issue with the F-35s is what could happen if the US sells the jets to foreign countries.

“Over 300,000 Yemenis have been killed (in the war). One can only imagine what they would do with access to F-35s. For me, as a Yemeni-American who has lived in Yemen during (the aggression), I can tell you first-hand how hard and painful it is to see your home reduced to ashes by Saudi airstrikes in a matter of seconds. Providing F-35s to Saudi Arabia and UAE would potentially mean more airstrikes, indiscriminate airstrikes, airstrikes on homes, supermarkets, schools, farms, public roads, soccer stadiums, hospitals, buses filled with children, and other civilian places,” Abdullah says. 

Of the over 220 letter signees are at least eighteen groups and businesses from Madison, with another at least 16 groups across  Wisconsin. One of those groups is 350 Wisconsin, a Madison-based grassroots organization fighting to solve the climate crisis by 2030. John Greenler, Executive Director of 350 Wisconsin, says he signed the letter because he thinks the letter shows how F-35s are both a local and global issue.

“There are a number of clear examples of how F-35s are a significant concern in terms of climate change. Those range from things that are really specific to us here in Madison, to how things are playing on the global arena as well. This scales out significantly,” Greenler says. 

The first F-35s are expected to arrive in April 2023, with all jets slated to arrive in Madison by May 2024, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 

Photo courtesy: Chali Pittman / WORT Flickr

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Ground the )PF-35

Ground the F-35 ARTICLE BANK:

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Open letter to Tammy Baldwin ad in MJS & Cap Times

An Open Letter to Senator Tammy Baldwin

 

Here's a copy of the full-page ad that will run in Sunday's WI State Journal, and half page in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

 Buy the paper, read the ad, clip it out, and then send it to Tammy Baldwin's office with a personal note. 
More info:
Tom Boswell 608/718-7312 [email protected]
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I’m a midwife on Madison’s north side, and the F-35s will harm the families I care for

BY  

The fighter jets will intensify noise and chemical pollution that threaten the health of babies and parents.

Illustration by Shaysa Sidebottom.

I live in one of the neighborhoods that would be most impacted if F-35 fighter jets should bed down at Madison’s Truax Field. I bought my home in Eken Park five years ago and was drawn to the racial and economic diversity of this neighborhood......

https://tonemadison.com/articles/im-a-midwife-on-madisons-north-side-and-the-f-35s-will-harm-the-families-i-care-for/https://tonemadison.com/articles/im-a-midwife-on-madisons-north-side-and-the-f-35s-will-harm-the-families-i-care-for/

 

 

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Tell Lockheed Martin to Begin Conversion to Peaceful Industries

Lockheed Martin is by far the largest weapons producer in the world. From Ukraine to Yemen, from Palestine to Colombia, from Somalia to Syria, from Afghanistan and West Papua to Ethiopia, no one profits more from war and bloodshed than Lockheed Martin.

Sign this petition to Lockheed Martin to urge immediate conversion from weapons manufacturing to peaceful industries for economic, environmental, and survival reasons! We will be delivering this petition to Lockheed Martin's headquarters and various other Lockheed Martin locations as part of the Global Mobilization to #StopLockheedMartin (April 21-28, 2022).

 

https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-lockheed-martin-to-begin-conversion-to-peaceful-industries?source=direct_link&fbclid=IwAR2EuqitpDNVLutOl7i95uoI1bq3GCtIcc8JNvV3GFxQQWatc_ESh_xlRpY

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F-35 Jet Foes Submit Environmental Justice Complaint to EPA – March 23, 2022


F-35 Jet Foes Submit Environmental Justice Complaint to EPA – March 23, 2022

Read the full complaint: Safe Skies EPA Administrative Complaint – Mar.23.2022

COMPLAINT UNDER TITLE VI OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1964

For Immediate Release (PDF)
March 23, 2022
F-35 Jet Foes Submit Environmental Justice Complaint to EPA

Today Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin submitted an Environmental Justice Complaint to the USEPA Administrator Michael Regan under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. The complaint asks the EPA to intervene in the Air Force decision to deploy a squadron of F-35A fighter jets to the Wisconsin Air National Guard at Truax Field in Madison.

Safe Skies contends that the Civil Rights Act has been violated by the Air Force, and state, county and local leaders, because the greatest negative environmental impacts of the jets will fall on the low-income families and families of color that live adjacent to the Dane County Regional Airport and Truax Field. The Air Force prepared Environmental Impact Statements evaluating five potential sites for the jets and selected the only two where there would be “disproportionate impacts to low-income, minority populations, and children.” The sites selected for the F-35 jets were Madison and Montgomery, Alabama.

The complaint names the following parties for their participation in the violation of Title VI: the Wisconsin Air National Guard and Adjutant General Paul Knapp; the State of Wisconsin and Governor Tony Evers; the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and its Secretary, Preston Cole; Dane County and County Executive Joseph Parisi; Dane County Regional Airport and its Director, Kimberly Jones; and, the City of Madison and its Mayor, Satya Rhodes-Conway. Safe Skies contends that State, County and local leaders are complicit in promoting environmental injustice and environmental racism due to their approval, support or acquiescence in locating the squadron of F-35 fighter jets at Truax Field.

The Biden Administration has “pledged an aggressive, broad-based approach to achieve environmental justice.” The president has formalized his commitment “to make environmental justice a part of the mission of every agency by directing federal agencies to develop programs, policies, and activities to address the disproportionate health, environmental, economic, and climate impacts on disadvantaged communities.”

“Safe Skies Clean Water is asking President Biden and his administration to stay true to their word,” said Safe Skies leader Steve Klafka. “This complaint gives the Biden Administration an opportunity to do the right thing by low-income and people of color in Madison.”

There are more than 60,000 people who live within three miles of Truax Field, as well as 17 K-12 public schools, ten private schools, 13 nursery and child care centers and a school for children with special needs less than a mile from the airport runway. According to a 2018 neighborhood study by the City of Madison, kids in the Truax area are struggling even before they start school, with only 48 percent considered “kindergarten ready.” One of the schools destined to suffer the worst noise impacts is Hawthorne Elementary, where most children are low-income and of color. According to city staff, almost every impacted area with the greatest noise exposure belongs to a census tract with rates of persons of color well above city and county-wide averages.

Melina Lozano teaches at Hawthorne Elementary School, less than a mile from the county airport and Truax Field. Lozano feels the training flights by existing F-16 fighter jets already disrupt the education of her students and will worsen with the proposed F-35 jets. “As a public school educator, I have seen first hand how much the F-16 fighter jets affect student learning. Teaching stops when students are distracted by the loud jets flying over the school throughout the day. Students lose track of the lesson and their learning is interrupted. Most of our students come from low-income and families of color that already struggle to succeed. The education of our students will suffer further due to the Air National Guard plans for louder and more frequent F-35 fighter jet training.”

The Environmental Impact Statement estimated there would be 2,766 people and 1,318 households living within the 65-decibel noise contour the FAA considers incompatible with residential housing. These people would qualify for noise mitigation funds for relocation or noise insulation. However, based on the experience of residents in the Burlington, Vermont region, mitigation would not be complete until 2060.

The Air Force and Wisconsin Air National Guard are responsible for contamination of area groundwater but they have failed to fully investigate the extent of the contamination or develop a plan for its removal. Fish contaminated by PFAS are consumed by local residents. The taxpayer cost for Dane County’s squadron of F-35s jets will be $2,206,000,000, but does not include funds for PFAS cleanup. Construction has begun to accommodate the F-35 jets on land with groundwater contaminated with PFAS thousands of times greater than proposed state standards.

Maria Powell, Executive Director of Madison Environmental Justice Organization, applauded Safe Skies submission of the complaint. She said: “The Air Force and Air National Guard plan to bring F-35 fighter jets to Madison will double down on a long history of environmental injustice and racism which surround the Dane County airport. An environmental justice inquiry by the federal EPA is long overdue. For decades, city and county officials have looked the other way as low income and families of color have been exposed to the airport’s noise and water pollution. Officials have failed to address PFAS pollution spewing from the airport, burn pits, military base, former Truax Landfill and Burke sewage plant into Starkweather Creek, the Yahara Chain of Lakes, and the fish consumed by many low-income subsistence anglers. The current race and class-based disparities in pollution exposure have not been addressed, and the arrival of the noisier F-35 fighter jets will only worsen these unacceptable living conditions. We hope the EPA responds aggressively to the Safe Skies complaint and stops the blatant environmental racism promoted by the Air Force and Air National Guard.”

Safe Skies has asked the EPA to intervene and stop the arrival of the F-35 jets. If the jets cannot be stopped, a community remediation program must be immediately developed to address the environmental impacts on Madison residents. To address noise impacts this program would include funds for the government to purchase impacted homes, relocation of residents, and soundproofing of impacted homes, schools and businesses. To address existing PFAS contamination of water resources, construction for the new jets would stop until there is a comprehensive program to investigate and clean up PFAS contamination. The plan would pay for water filtration on homes, schools, and public and private wells. There would be a clean fish exchange program for contaminated fish caught in Starkweather Creek and the Yahara Chain of Lakes.

Co-sponsors to the environmental justice complaint include numerous local religious, environmental and educational organizations representing the residents who are concerned about the health and safety of the Madison community. These include Midwest Environmental Advocates, the Madison Environmental Justice Organization, Wisconsin Environmental Health Network, Madison Teachers Inc. and the Madison Board of Education. They call out the Air Force, as well as state, county and local leaders, for promoting environmental injustice and racism.

The environmental justice complaint was prepared for Safe Skies by the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law. The full text of the complaint is attached and is also available on the organization’s website: safeskiescleanwaterwi.org.

For more information, contact:

Steven Klafka, P.E., BCEE, Environmental Engineer
Safe Skies Clean Water Wisconsin
[email protected]
608-213-4473

Nicholas J. Schroeck, Director, Environmental Law Clinic
University of Detroit Mercy School of Law
[email protected]
313-596-9817

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Living Under Warplanes with Documentarian Nina Berman

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