By Joe Winter
Catholic Herald correspondent
HUDSON -- Peace activists expressed surprise at the timing, when after two decades of protest, a pair of Project ELF sites recently were closed by the U.S. Navy. After all the hubbub, the end of ELF and its controversial transmissions came at the flick of a switch, carefully monitored from across the fence by peace activists.
They have charged that the project, which allowed "extremely-low frequency" communications with nuclear missile-packed submarines, was damaging to human health and the environment. They also have argued that because the Cold War has long since ended, the project, that cost $400 million to develop, is a dinosaur. The two project sites -- in northwest Wisconsin and Upper Michigan -- consisted of about 28 miles of utility poles and transmission cables strung across them. They have been the site of frequent protests, at times involving cutting of poles and subsequent arrests.
"This caught everyone off guard," said protest organizer Mike Miles of a Luck, Wis., Catholic Worker farm, who first was arrested in 1984 and now is a Green Party Candidate for the U.S. House. "It's the end of an era. Twenty years worth of work."
Superiorite Jan Provost, of Grandmothers for Peace, said it was a quiet, sunny day and that protesters and law enforcement officers shook hands and talked across the fence during the time of shut down.
"It happened so fast. We were stunned," Provost said, adding that the protesters would have liked to have made the closing more of an event.
"It was like a family reunion," Provost said, adding that she wished more people could have made it to Clam Lake, Wis., on short notice to attend -- like the 200 or more who were there on many previous protest occasions.
One of those protests has been on Mother's Day, when protesters for years have given up time with families to be at the ELF site. She noted that one member of her group, who is from Duluth, Minn., and 70 others, are still scheduled to go on trial Nov. 5 in Madison for legal violations relating to trespassing, even though the ELF matter now appears to be a moot point.
All communications with submarines now will be done with 12 "very low frequency" transmitters worldwide, although Miles said those stations always have existed. The U.S government will take up to three years to fully dismantle the ELF sites, which Miles said is "too long and curious," but important because in both cases the sites are within national forests.
The ELF sites are in the Chequamegon National Forest near Clam Lake, and the Escanaba State Forest near Republic in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and these locations raise concerns about hasty or haphazard removal, Miles said.
The Navy will work with the U.S. Forest Service and the Departments of Natural Resources on the final closure, and will deal with issues such as historic preservation act requirements, environmental assessments and land disposition.
He added that there were about 25 protesters monitoring the recent Wisconsin shutdown, which was verified by hand-held meters that measured whether electrical activity was going through the lines. Miles said that he and other activists will continue to check on the progress as the sites come down.
"I hope they don't have anything up their sleeve, I want to believe them," Miles said about federal authorities and their promise of the shutdown.
Miles said the closure goes to show that nonviolent activism can be successful in bringing change. There was a surprisingly large police presence at the Wisconsin site, Miles said, and Navy officials would not divulge the exact moment of shut off, saying it is classified information for operational security.
Provost said that isn't surprising and added that this was meant to have the closure occur without fanfare. Project ELF was a dead issue because of the end of the Cold War and all along it was a waste of taxpayer money, she said.
The government says it cost $13 million a year to run both transmitters. The Navy used the ELF system to maintain secure communications with submarines at sea, allowing the vessels to receive messages without surfacing because the radio waves penetrated into deep waters. This was meant to keep submarines hidden and undetected, giving the United States an edge over the Soviet Union.
The shutdown has been called historic because the communications system has been online continually since 1989, shutting down for only short periods of maintenance. It has been staffed mostly by a small crew of civilian contractors.
© Superior Catholic Herald, 2004