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Box 750 Isla de Culebra, PR 00775 (o) 787-556-6234 SKYPE: coralations Youtube, Scribd and Facebook: CORALations Culebra and CORALations email:
info@coralations.org
Ms. Elizabeth L. Ray Vice President Mission Support Services Air Traffic Organization U.S. Dept of Transportation Federal Aviation Administration Mission Support Services 800 Independence Ave. SW Washington, DC 20591 elizabeth.ray@faa.gov Re: FOIA Request 2013-1202 March 25, 2013 Dear Ms. Ray: CORALations is a non-profit coral reef conservation organization based on the island of Culebra, Puerto Rico. Through our normal course of doing business, we discovered a serious concern regarding No Hazard determinations to air traffic for a proposed wind farm located in, or adjacent to, the fly zone of the airport on this small Caribbean island. Culebra is growing in tourism popularity. Visitors and locals access Culebra using ferry service from Fajardo or via small planes from San Juan, Ceiba and the Virgin Islands. There is no hospital on the island, and all serious medical emergencies depend on safe and smooth air evacuation to the big island via small planes, and during varying weather and wind conditions. Copies of No Hazard determinations were submitted by the Puerto Rico Administracin de Asuntos Energticos (AAE) in an environmental impact study (EIS) for a proposed wind farm project, Proyecto Punta Flamenco Windfarm, DIA-2012-AAE-28. The proposed wind turbine project was moving through an expedited planning process, after elections and during a local Government transition. Upon communicating directly with FAA personnel, we learned that the No Hazard determinations included in the EIS, had already been terminated and new numbers issued. The new determinations were not available to the public. On November 30th we sent an expedited request through FOIA to your office soliciting copies of any and all records related to the terminated studies included in the EIS, specifically, Aeronautical Studies 2012-WTE-1048-OE through 2012-WTE-1053-OE. On December 3rd, 2012 we received a letter from Douglas C. Taylor, Manager of the FOIA program for FAA, indicting our request was assigned to Dean Torgerson, FOIA coordinator. This letter denied an expedited FOIA process because: you have not shown a compelling need based on imminent threat to life or physical
safety to an individual, nor an urgency to in form the public of an actual or alleged FAA activity beyond the public's right generally to know about Government activity We recently received a letter dated Feb 25th 2013 with a CD that included digital documents. We took the time to list these (please see attached) and post online. The list is attached to this communication. We understand a decision was made to redact some of the personal information in this disclosure, and we have no problem with that. Mary Ann Powell of the FAA, responded to a recent call about this FOIA release, and is copied below. This FOIA response does not appear to be complete: The initial No Hazard determinations submitted in the above referenced EIS were not based on the actual height of the proposed wind generators. The physical characteristics of the wind generators were not included in the EIS submitted to Puerto Rico's Environmental Quality Board. The FOIA response revealed no copies of initial applications, or re-applications. The public only learns, at a short noticed public hearing moving through an expedited planning process, that the proposed wind generators are in fact 370 feet tall. We still do not know what was actually submitted to the FAA, who submitted the applications and when which prompted us to submit a FOIA. The No Hazard determinations included in the EIS had already been terminated at the time of the public notice regarding the Environmental Quality Board (WQB) public's hearing, and replaced by others not available to the public online at the FAA website, and not included in this response. This raises serious questions and concerns regarding the transparency of the planning process, and agencies involved. The FOIA response failed to include any of our stated concerns and communications to safety, public health and environment expressed to the FAA, and on record with your agency prior to the date of the FOIA request. (see http://www.scribd.com/doc/113516687/FAA-Response-Before-Hearing While the FOIA request sent to FAA by our organization was comprehensive (any and all), the FOIA response makes no mention of determinations involving wind meters already installed on the ridge above the airport approach and possibly not permitted. These could currently be posing a risk and coordinates of these meters is critical to estimating the efficiency of proposed turbines. The FOIA response failed to include documentation of the public notice issued and associated with any and all required determinations near Culebra's airport. While we understand that to receive notice, there is a special list-serve that requires a subscription, we were told by members of this list serve, no such notice was issued. Proposed is a major energy project for the small island that will profoundly impact the small airport, and I am confident that if notified, these participants would have remembered. This intuitively seems reflexive of either a flawed or corrupted system, which warrants investigation by experts familiar with FAA rules, and local Government abuse of an expedited permitting process for renewable energies or otherwise, where the outcome could result in such obvious impacts to the safety of the local islanders, Culebra's medical emergencies and tourists that depend on the small Culebra air port for safe travel.
We are re-writing again for any and all documentation including a record of our email communications with your personnel and documentation and or negative certification of public notice regarding the wind farm project proposed by Puerto Ricos AAE (DIA-2012-AAE-28) Any inconsistencies regarding documents included and transcribed in files on the CD the FAA provided, are noted and highlighted in the enclosure entitled: List of Files Submitted in FAA FOIA on CD, Feb 25, 2013. Sincerely,
enc. List of Files Submitted in FAA FOIA response to Lucking dated Feb 25, 2013.
Letters Folder
**NO CIR file? DNH_167063337.pdf NPH_161005630.pdf TER_169026390.pdf
DOD_DHS_LRR_158820879.pdf DOD_MILOPS_158820890.pdf Military Conflicts_USA.pdf Military Conflicts_USAF.pdf Military Conflicts_USN.pdf MVA_MIA_158820874.pdf NASWATCH_AF_15_158820857.pdf NASWATCH_DOD_155820859.pdf NOAA_NEXRAD_158820887.pdf POS_158820851.pdf Traffic_PATTERN_158820853.pdf
Letters Folder
**NO CIR file. DNH_167063335.pdf NPH_161005912.pdf TER_169026394.pdf
LETTERS Folder
CIR_163371250.pdf DNH_167062971.pdf NPH_161006176.pdf TER_169026395.pdf
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http://www.scribd.com/word/document_edit/130398039?return_to_doc=true
Part 77_MIL_ 158821086.pdf NOTE: concludes no runway found w/i 12.5 nautical miles of proposed obstruction? Not a traverse way?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/130398046/PART-77-MIL-158821086
**Missing a CIV file?
http://www.scribd.com/doc/130398761/159886328-2012-WTE1048thru1053-OELRR