FALMOUTH – Before a new machine gun range proposed for Camp Edwards can be built, the project will be reviewed by a panel established to protect Cape Cod’s water sources.
The $11 million firing range would require the clear cutting of 170 acres of forest and be built over the Sagamore Lens, the largest in the Cape Cod aquifer and main source of drinking water for Bourne, Falmouth, Sandwich, Mashpee, Barnstable, and Yarmouth.
Yarmouth selectman and chairman of the Cape Cod Conservation District Mark Forest raised concerns about the environmental impact of the firing range, as the area affects a large portion of the Cape community.
“If you live west of Bass River, whatever happens on this area has a potential impact on the water supply for all of these communities and we learned that years ago when we were very involved in the clean-up of pollution out of the base,” said Forest.
“A significant amount of work was done to model ground water flow and pollution. The clean-up itself was incredibly expensive, close to a billion dollars.”
Forest said that he understands that the training is important for the purposes of military readiness, and was only questioning whether the area is the appropriate site, given both environmental concerns and potential noise from the machine gun fire.
Since 2002, which saw the establishment of the 15,000 acre Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve, activities at the base were limited to training that is consistent with water supply conservation and management.
The Environmental Management Commission was created to oversee and regulate what goes on in Camp Edwards in regards to complying with water conservation, and Forest said that he and others are requesting that the Commission be more engaged in reviewing the machine gun range proposal.
Forest said that after analyzing the project, they have found some details that could potentially create a risk for the environment which the Commission has reached out to the National Guard to get clarification on.
As the public comment period has officially ended, it is up to the Environmental Management Commission and its boards to fill in the void in regards to public involvement, according to Forest.
“We can’t allow this project to just move forward with escaping the attention of the public or the involvement of local officials,” said Forest.
Forest said that in recent years, Yarmouth and the Cape in general has worked to create an open dialogue with surrounding communities including Camp Edwards, but the topic of the machine gun range still got lost in the lines of communication.
Forest said that the select board should have been kept abreast of the project by officials from Camp Edwards, but that there is still time to further analyze and double check the plans for the range if the Environmental Management Commission and other boards step in.
Forest also said that careful review could potentially save considerable amounts of money for taxpayers, as well as precious water sources.
“When you think about how much money the taxpayers have spent cleaning up pollution out there, it’s incredible. We’ve seen numbers close to a billion dollars in clean-up costs and that’s just staggering. There’s still some work to be done, so the question you have to ask yourself is should we be repeating the mistakes of the past or learn from them and take measures to prevent these things from happening again?”
About Grady Culhane
