By Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent
Dismantling of ELF site proceeding slowly
CLAM LAKE -- It has been more than a year since the United States government announced it would shut down Project ELF, but there is still plenty to do on a three-year plan to dismantle the communications facility.
Hundreds of 40-foot poles remain in place, and although government officials insist the ELF tear-down project is on schedule, recent media reports suggest otherwise. Even some of the government's own data is vague enough to cast doubt, although it has had months to do planning.
Still, that doesn't seem too alarming to some environmental and peace activists, and they don't see to much reason to doubt the government's promise at least not yet.
John LaForge, co-director of Nuke Watch, has been focusing on the ELF issue. Nuke Watch has an interest in monitoring the progress of the shutdown, which became official about 14 months ago.
LaForge said that the 400 tons of aluminum antenna wire strung across more than 42 miles of poles, through places such as national forests, have basically been rolled up, although most, if not all, of the 1,500 poles themselves remain. The wire will be shipped out and recycled.
LaForge conceded that since many of the poles lie in wetlands, the government may be waiting until the ground freezes so they can be removed without causing environmental damage. The Navy said that some re-use is planned by owners, and after negotiations, expected to occur soon, some of the poles may stay.
There also are miles of buried copper grounding wire at the ends of the ELF system, which Navy officials have said wouldn't be quick or tidy to tear down.
LaForge acknowledged the government had said it would likely take the full three years to do a complete dismantling of the two Project ELF sites, at a cost that the government initially estimated at $23 million.
LaForge and some of his associates traveled to the ELF site near Clam Lake in January and May. During the winter trip they were not allowed to take photographs, he said. Photography had never been forbidden during years of peaceful protests and occasional cutting of poles at Clam Lake prior to the shutdown, LaForge said, "but I guess they did that because they could (wield authority)."
As of this fall, the final disposition of some of the Project ELF equipment was still in question, since it was announced that an environmental assessment still had to be done, and possibly could show that some things would have to stay in place. It also reportedly could set another timetable for removal.
That assessment was due in October. Calls placed to a pair of telephones at the Project ELF site did not go through. A recorded message said they were "being checked for trouble," meaning the phone company was looking into some kind of technical difficulty, one of its representatives said.
"Presently, both sites' liaison contacts have indicated that all trace of the ELF presence must be removed and the sites returned to the original natural state," said Randy Clark, a Navy official based in Virginia who is working on the closure project.
"These negotiations are only in the early stages and things can, and usually do, change," Clark said. "All equipment pertaining to the IT ELF communications located inside each compound has been removed and returned to Defense Utilization for re-use disposition."
About 60 or 70 government employees and civilian contractors worked at the two Project ELF sites, and their jobs were up in September, but their number made it far different than shutting down a huge military base, Navy officials told the Associated Press.
Work done so far includes removal of all radio transmitters and the sensitive electronic equipment from the 12 buildings at the two Project ELF sites. Some environmentalists have argued that some of the poles should stay in place to provide nesting sites for raptors.
"The two fenced compounds are at present receiving some temporary lay-up modifications to protect government property, in anticipation of the awaited closure," Clark said. "We are on schedule and should be nearing completion this time next year."
Clark acknowledged that his comments "are guesses but are the best information that I can find at present."
Project ELF was a submarine communications system using extremely low frequency radio transmitters in the Chequamegon National Forest at Clam Lake and a similar one in Upper Michigan's Escanaba State Forest near Republic. They allowed the Navy to send coded messages to submarines in the ocean via links in the Great Lakes but became a relic of the Cold War.
LaForge and other peace activists said the project promoted the possibility of nuclear war and besides that was outdated and replaceable by other technology.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2005