Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station

As part of a nationwide downsizing, the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station will eliminate 81 civilian jobs, the Department of Navy announced Wednesday. The Navy said it will have to eliminate 1,201 jobs nationwide by July because of declining workload. In hopes of avoiding actual layoffs at the Seal Beach base, the Navy is offering early retirement and "separation incentives" up to $25,000, according to naval officials.

Five juvenile burrowing owls flapped across a salt marsh at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station on a recent weekday, matching the loops and curves of dragonflies and moths before snatching their prey midair. Soon, the owls will be feasting on larger prey, including lizards, rodents and birds. That could present a touchy problem for the base's 1,000-acre wildlife refuge, which is also home to a breeding colony of federally endangered least terns. There are four breeding pairs of burrowing owls left along the Southern California coast between Santa Barbara and Encinitas, and all of them nest at the Orange County base.

The City Council Monday added its voice to the growing opposition to a Navy proposal to build a $200-million expansion of its port facilities at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. Council members voted 4 to 0, with Mayor Edna Wilson abstaining, to formally oppose the expansion project that would change the configuration of Anaheim Bay. The council decision came despite a plea by Capt. Stephen T.

A civilian employee at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station was killed Thursday when he was hit by metal debris after a nitrogen gas tank ruptured. The 53-year-old man was not identified pending notification of relatives, officials said. The accident occurred about 10:45 a.m. as he and two others calibrated submarine depth gauges using pressurized nitrogen. All three worked for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, a base tenant.

The trapping and killing of the red fox to protect endangered birds at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station should continue, but measures should be taken to improve and protect the birds' nesting grounds, according to a federal environmental report released Friday. A federal judge in 1988 ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Navy to prepare the report after an animal rights group sued to halt a program to trap foxes.

A civilian employee at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station was killed Thursday when he was hit by metal debris after a nitrogen gas tank ruptured. The 53-year-old man was not identified pending notification of relatives, officials said. The accident occurred about 10:45 a.m. as he and two others calibrated submarine depth gauges using pressurized nitrogen. All three worked for the Naval Surface Warfare Center, a base tenant.

Red foxes preying on dwindling populations of two endangered bird species at the Seal Beach National Wildlife refuge will be trapped and sent to zoos or released in the wilds in other locations, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service official said. Bob Fields, refuge manager, estimated that there are 50 to 60 foxes harassing least terns and light-footed clapper rails on the 1,100-acre salt marsh refuge on the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station.

Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station is bracing for cutbacks, a spokesman said this week. "There's no question that there will be a reduction in force among the civilian work force," Navy spokesman Danny Johnson said. The facility employs 493 civilians in full- and part-time jobs, along with 134 military personnel. Johnson, himself a civilian, said an official notice is expected within a few weeks. Federal law requires that a notice of 60 to 90 days be given if more than 50 employees are laid off.

There's something incongruous about the proprietors of a site devoted to weapons of mass destruction welcoming bird lovers to their property. It's to the credit of the U.S. Navy on one side and civilian bird monitors on the other that an accommodation has been found at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. The facility has an island where least terns nest.

Two light planes, each carrying two people from a flying club in Long Beach, collided over the San Pedro Channel and plunged into the ocean just outside the Long Beach Breakwater on Thursday. There were no signs of survivors. One of those aboard the planes was identified by his family as Mike Chisholm, 56, owner of a flight school in Chino. The others were not identified.

Residents and the City Council were introduced to the new commanding officer of the Naval Weapons Station at Monday's council meeting. The new commanding officer, Capt. Paul Bruno, has been with the Navy for 24 years, and will relieve Capt. Thomas Bernitt, who is retiring after 26 years of service. The 55-year-old naval base south of Seal Beach Boulevard services more than 100 ships annually.

Biologist Jeff Johnson at first dismissed the rumors swirling among the personnel at the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. But the reports kept coming in: a clutch of humongous eggs, resting on a grassy berm on the south side of the base. When he decided to go out and investigate, Johnson found himself staring at seven dark green eggs, each about 6 inches long--larger than any egg he had ever seen--baking in the sun. He hurried back to his office and placed a call to a bird expert. The verdict?

The commander of the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station and three other West Coast arms depots said he will aggressively work to keep weapons handling under the control of government employees, even as a proposal to seek private bids for the sensitive work moves forward. Capt. Thomas R.

Some Seal Beach city leaders said Saturday they wouldn't object to private companies handling weapons at Navy bases--a move under consideration for bases nationwide--if the cost-cutting measure helps keep the local Naval Weapons Station open. The Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station is the biggest munitions depot on the West Coast.

A Santa Ana woman died Thursday when the car she was riding in collided with another vehicle near the entrance to the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, police said. Antonia Mendoza, 88, died in the 2:40 p.m. crash at Seal Beach Boulevard and Forrestal Lane, Lt. Kenny Mollohan said. Her son, Alfred Mendoza, 61, was taken to Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where he was treated for bruises to his torso, police said.

The Navy says it will seek private-sector bids for the bulk of its weapons-handling operations nationwide, raising the prospect that outside firms would load and inventory Tomahawk missiles, torpedoes and other powerful ammunition. The bidding effort is still in its early stages at a half-dozen bases, including the sprawling Naval Weapons Station in Seal Beach, which is the busiest munitions depot on the West Coast.

The Navy says it will seek private sector bids for the bulk of its weapons handling operations nationwide, raising the prospect that outside firms would load and inventory Tomahawk missiles, torpedoes and other powerful munitions. The bidding effort is still in its early stages at half a dozen bases including the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, which is the busiest munitions depot on the West Coast.