Our Mission Statement:
Sound Defense Alliance works to protect communities and the natural environment from harmful Navy Growler jet activity around the Salish Sea, Puget Sound, and Olympic Peninsula.
Our Purpose:
The Alliance may include citizens groups, non-profits and regional community groups, as well as state officials, state agencies, and local elected officials who support a balance between military and defense interests and the interests and rights of the citizens and communities that the military serves and protects.
The Alliance provides a new framework for collaboration and resolution between the military interests, state agencies and the civilian culture within Washington State. It will provide transparency and a voice for dialog and negotiation between citizens, local governments, military installations, state agencies, federal agencies, and our elected leaders to better coordinate a balanced approach as military decisions are being considered in Washington State.
It may recommend actions to be taken at local, state, and federal levels to appropriately contain military infrastructure, industry, and military impacts in Washington State that encroach upon civilian infrastructures, government, policies, rights responsibilities, and freedoms that form the bedrock of our democracy in Washington State.
Objectives
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To protect citizens’ rights and property;
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To protect public lands, including state and county parks, and waters, as well as those owned by trusts and private groups for preservation and conservation purposes, including the Olympic National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site, Ebey’s Landing National Historical Reserve, National Monuments and Sanctuaries;
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To promote a diverse and sustainable economy in our rural communities and in our State that includes outdoor recreation, tourism, diverse small businesses and entrepreneurs and a sustainable way of life in Washington;
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To protect and preserve the landscapes, seascapes and soundscapes of the Pacific Northwest Coast and Puget Sound environs against unbalanced increased military encroachment, expansion, and harmful military warfare training operations, such as electromagnetic warfare training and Growler jet Flight Carrier Landing Practices;
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To protect our right to live safely and freely without infringement on our rights to life, liberty and happiness by the federal government’s military forces;
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To protect our quiet spaces, where the sounds of wind, birds and waves is important;
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To protect a healthy Puget Sound Estuary and its environs, its diversity and its vitality from military war-training impacts on habitat, air quality, water quality, landscapes and soundscapes;
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To protect our region’s drinking water, air, and soils from toxic military contamination;
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To protect and be responsible for the rights of other species to exist in healthy habitats that are not degraded by military activities and impacts;
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To preserve our cultural and historical heritage in our parks and sanctuaries, schools and in the relationships that are the bedrock of our communities;
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To protect our right to public health from harmful military impacts to human health safety; and
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To take such other actions as are necessary to accomplish all of the foregoing.
Goals & Areas of Focus
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To advocate on behalf of civilian infrastructure impacted by military installations, missions and workforce needs
as well as to advocate for a balanced partnership between citizens and the military in Washington State;
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To consult with and educating local, state and federal officials, wherever appropriate, in order to create a better understanding of the economic, civil, commercial, health and safety, cultural, educational, environmental, and social impacts occasioned by the military and defense sector and to ensure that those impacts, which are unavoidable, are clearly disclosed to the public and shared equitably across the State of Washington;
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To sustain momentum in support of Washington State’s move toward a sustainable “Green Economy";
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To support a quiet soundscape, landscape and oceanscape;
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To support a future sustainable economy based upon the retention, expansion and recruitment of new civilian economic sector opportunities; and
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To support other groups and Washington State Task Force missions (e.g., the Orca Network and the Southern Resident Killer Whale Recovery & Task Force) that have mutually supportive goals.