Dear Sir,
Here's some information for all the (West Texas) landowners who have received "Right of Entry" request letters from Dyess Air Force Base for the Electronic Emitter Sites as part of the Realistic Bomber Training Initiative.

When the Air Force sent these letters out in January, they had not complied with the NEPA process of making sure ALL possibly impacted landowners had been notified and educated on what this proposal was all about. You were left out of all of the decision making process including the location of these proposed sites.

Manned threat emitter sites are staffed with three to five military personnel during normal working hours. Multiple daily security checks are made by security forces. They require extensive infrastructure developments such as powerlines, fiber optic cables, and roads. This could prove to be disruptive to your business operation.

There is a safety hazard. These sites emit powerful non-ionizing radiation whose primary effect on humans is to heat body tissue. If the projectory of the radar is flat and you are standing on the ground within range — it could fry you. The military has to lock the equipment in an upward projectory. The Air Force will tell you it's low-dose radiation and no risk, but they put these HUGE warning sings on these sites. Emitter sites in Central Nevada are ½-acre to an acre in size. The RBTI is asking for 15-acre sites with TWO chain-link security fences, so it is possible they have found that the risks are greater than previously thought.

The radiation is not nearly as important an issue with these emitter sites as the fighter jets and bombers that accompany them. "Integrated Training" means high speed jet fighter sweeps and escorts along with the bombers. It means dogfighting and low-level approaches that are not necessarily directly overhead of the threat emitter sites.

The Navy in Central Nevada used the same tactic the Air Force has used to modify our airspace in West Texas — a progression of little bites at a time. The Navy started with little 1/4-acre trailer pads to move some portable emitter sites in once a month, then it went to two weekends a month, then it mushroomed into permanent installations and the area became a de-facto military reservation. The military became the dominant force on over a million acres of multi-use land.

Once they get all of these sites in — then they want the land (claim a safety hazard, for instance; just last week a training plane crashed near Fallon, Nev.) Right now, the Navy is trying to justify taking 90,000 acres in Nevada because of 69 of these sites. The Air Force has a procedure that they don't have to release Draft Environmental Assessments. They will be able to sneak in future sites without the public's knowledge.

The impacted citizens have no control over the expansion of these programs or the devaluation of their property. Once taxpayer money has been spent on these emitter sites, the military presence will be continuous and long term.

Twelve 15-acre sites throughout West Texas does not sound like much to give up until you realize that these sites allow the military to turn the whole Military Training Route, IR-178, into a military reservation of about 20,000 square miles. Please call the Trans-Pecos Protection Group at (915) 364-2323 for additional information to enable you to make an informed decision on what to do with your property.

A medical study at Cornell University on the physiological effects of airplane noise on children has proven it to be a health hazard for them. Children in the chronic noise group experienced modest but significant increases in blood pressure and significant increases in stress hormones (epinephrine, norepinephrine and cortisol). "Although the increases in blood pressure were modest in the children living under the flight path, they may predict a greater likelihood of having higher blood pressure throughout adulthood," says Gary Evans, a professor of design and environmental analysis in Cornell's College of Human Ecology.

If more information is needed, please contact Rich Anderson at P.O. Box 136, Gail, TX 79738 or call (915) 399-4471; Joe Canon, Borden County director; or Buster Welch at 1500 County Rd. 349, Rotan, TX 79549 (915) 735-3289.

John R. (Rich) Anderson
Vice President
Heritage Environmental Preservation Assn.
Gail, Texas