This week, President Donald Trump declared the military’s supersonic jet flights over the remote Owyhee region are “in the paramount interest of the United States” — even if they pollute rivers and threaten fish.
He didn’t explain why the U.S. Air Force combat jet trainings are necessary over a remote sagebrush desert shared by Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. But his declaration comes two months into the war the U.S. and Israel launched against Iran.
The president’s determination exempts the military from federal and local water regulations, allowing it to pollute waterways in this high desert ecosystem as it trains combat jet pilots. It could undermine a three-year-old lawsuit that seeks to limit these flights, which have rattled the landscape with thunderous booms.
As part of their training operations, pilots release flares and clouds of aluminum-coated fibers called chaff, which are defensive countermeasures that can throw off radar and heat-seeking missiles. Chaff and flares also release small bits of metal that environmental advocates say are harming native fish.
It’s another example of the Trump administration’s effort to reduce environmental protections intended to preserve the nation’s water, air and ecosystems, as the president prioritizes domestic mining, logging and coal-powered plants — as well as overseas combat.
The U.S. Air Force has been training its forces at the Mountain Home Air Force Base in southwestern Idaho for almost eight decades, with pilot trainings also covering parts of Oregon and Nevada.
The military expanded these trainings in 2021, when it lowered the allowable flight paths of jets traveling near the speed of sound to 100 feet in Oregon and Nevada. It also lowered the paths of supersonic jets — which travel faster than the speed of sound — to 10,000 feet. Idaho already allowed these low-flying jets.
In 2023, a Bend-based conservation nonprofit, the Oregon Natural Desert Association, sued the Air Force, alleging its operations in Oregon were damaging this delicate desert ecosystem and disrupting wildlife.
After Trump’s actions this week, ONDA’s legal claim stands on shaky grounds. The Clean Water Act allows federal agencies to pollute rivers, lakes and the ocean if the president grants them an exemption due to national interest.
“This makes their lawsuit almost impossible to win,” said Craig Johnston, Lewis & Clark College law professor. “The U.S. Supreme Court has sent signals to the lower court in the last year that they’re going to take any claims of national security very, very seriously.”
Staff with ONDA said they’re considering their next steps in the lawsuit. An Air Force spokesperson declined to comment, deferring to the U.S. Department of Justice, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
ONDA’s effort to limit Air Force flights focuses on about 969,000 acres in southeastern Oregon that include part of the Owyhee Canyonlands. The nonprofit’s lawsuit says the military is releasing highly flammable flares in a dry region that’s prone to wildfires, and the jet chaff can drop metals — including aluminum and copper — that are toxic to trout native to the Owyhee River and its tributaries.
Federal environmental reviews of the military operations say residual metals from the chaff and flares could collect on water surfaces, but that the amount would be minuscule. The reviews also say that the aluminum, silica and magnesium in this refuse are mostly non-toxic to fish except in large quantities.
People who live nearby are also worried about noise and sonic shock waves from these flights.
The Shoshone-Paiute Tribes’ Duck Valley Indian Reservation sits at the center of the Air Force’s military operations in Idaho. While the tribes have a no-fly zone agreement with the military, some tribal members say the jets are loud and rattle their homes.
“They’ve not been good stewards,” tribal Vice Chair Arnold Thomas said of the jet flights.
Thomas worries about the noise disrupting the natural cycle of native wildlife, which includes bighorn sheep, mule deer, cougars, marmots, bats and sage grouse.
“When that sonic boom goes off, it’s similar to the first thunder after winter that occurs,” Thomas said. “That indicates to those that are hibernating that it’s time to wake up.”
This high desert region provides critical habitat to sage grouse, an imperiled and politicized high desert bird whose populations have dropped by 80% over the last six decades.
The Owyhee Canyonlands are often seen as a remote escape for hikers and hunters seeking quiet and solitude. But the sonic jets can disrupt that.
“How do you find solitude when you’re hearing loud jets fly over you at 100 feet off the ground?” said Tim Davis, executive director and founder of the grassroots conservation group, Friends of the Owyhee.
According to Johnston, the Lewis & Clark professor, this appears to be the first time that Trump has invoked a section of the Clean Water Act that allows a federal or private entity to pollute the nation’s waterways in the name of national interest.
This exemption has been invoked fewer than a dozen times in modern history.
Trump has issued similar exemptions for air pollution laws, specifically for coal-powered plants.
“Certainly this administration seems more eager to use this power than any prior administration,” Johnston said.
