FALMOUTH – In a recent meeting, members of Falmouth’s Select Board debated environmental concerns related to the potential implementation of a machine gun shooting range at Joint Base Cape Cod.
On one side of the issue, select board Vice Chair Doug Brown noted that he did not believe that any specific environmental concerns had been identified aside from the removal of trees.
He went on to say that the removal of trees from sandy soil can, under some circumstances, help the aquifer to “recharge” faster.
Select Board member Samuel Patterson raised some concerns over a lack of communication from the base, noting that, “we have every right to be skeptical of what’s going on on that base after the amount of contaminants that were dumped up in the Joint Base Cape Cod area and contaminated our aquifer.”
The proposed range would remove roughly 170 acres of forest within the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve.
The board agreed to reach out to officials from the base to learn more about their plans. They added that it would be important for the public to know as much about the project as possible.
CapeCod.com’s Grady Culhane wrote a piece on the community response to the project with more information which can be found here.
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