For Immediate Release

July 9, 2004

REP. DICKS LAUNCHES PLAN TO RE-LOCATE,
CONSOLIDATE NAVY LAB AT FOX ISLAND

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Norm Dicks today secured the approval of a congressional appropriations panel to relocate the Navy’s research laboratory on Fox Island to Navy owned land on  Submarine Base Bangor in lieu of proceeding with a controversial plan to replace moorings and expand an  existing pier on the Island.

            Rep. Dicks said the House Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee accepted his amendment today, approving the allocation of $6.85 million for the first of two phases to relocate the laboratory, which conducts research, development, testing and evaluation projects for the Navy's Deep Submergence Program.   Along with the relocation, Rep. Dicks said the panel also accepted language approving a consolidation of various Navy research components that are currently housed in facilities at Bangor and at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.  The total cost of the consolidation and relocation is expected to be $18 million, Rep. Dicks said.

            Since 2002, he said, the Navy has been examining various proposals to replace rotting moorings and expand a pontoon-supported pier that extends into Carr Inlet in the southern portion of Puget Sound .  Neighboring landowners on the Island were concerned about the impact of the expansion and of the construction on existing beachfront areas, as well as by the increased Navy activity on the small island, which has a population of 2,803.

            “This consolidation will allow us to save money by bringing together several other elements of the same research function – operated by the Navy’s Surface Warfare Center, Carderock, MD --  to a new facility at Bangor that can be designed and constructed consistent with existing Navy operations at the Sub Base,” Rep. Dicks said.  “We can expand the scope of the Navy’s R&D work and avert a continuing struggle over the Fox Island site by paying a small premium over what was needed to fix up the existing pier,” he added.

            The panel also approved other elements of the Military Construction Appropriations bill for the next fiscal year, including major housing improvements at Fort Lewis and Naval Station Bremerton, Rep. Dicks said.   A total of $150.6 million was approved for construction projects at Washington state defense bases in the bill.  Among the state items in the bill are:

• The second increment of a barracks complex at Fort Lewis, to be constructed for $48 million.
• A new $34.13 million Bachelor Enlisted Quarters for shipboard personnel at Naval Station Bremerton.
• $35.77 million to build a production and storage complex at Submarine Base Bangor.
• $20.31 million for a carrier maintenance complex at Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
• $1.4 million will pay for additions and alterations to the Readiness Center at Camp Murray, headquarters of the Army National Guard.
• $2.5 million to acquire land in Vancouver for the new Army Reserve headquarters that will eventually be constructed.
  

            The committee also accepted an amendment that Rep. Dicks supported, boosting the construction of family housing on military bases.  The panel agreed to raise the limitation currently in place on the Defense Department's  Family Housing Privatization program, which was pioneered successfully at Fort Lewis.  Rep. Dicks said that raising the cap on this program will allow the Navy and Air Force projects in Washington state to proceed in the next year, including a major private housing initiative that is planned at McChord Air Force Base.

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