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Issue:
Whether the United States Army's Draft Environmental Impact
Statement ("DEIS") for the exansion and operation of the PCMS
adequately reviews potential environmental impacts and coplies
with applicable federal laws and regulations.
Background:
The Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site (PCMS) is a training area
administered by Fort Carson that encompasses 235,896 acres located
about 150 miles southeast of Fort Carson. The military acquired
PCMS in the mid-80s to provide the Army with a place to conduct
mechanized brigade training exercises. Approximately half of
the PCMS area was acquired through the use of eminent domain.
As the second largest Department of Defense training site in
the nation (to California’s Fort Irwin), PCMS has hosted
up to two major military exercises a year, in which roughly
5,000 troops, 300 heavy tracked vehicles and 400 wheeled vehicles
take to the expansive wilderness in month-long, intensive war
maneuver exercises. The training area borders miles of the Purgatoire
River and includes significant portions of at least six of its
tributaries. PCMS supports a diverse ecosystem with large numbers
of big and small game, fisheries, non-game wildlife, forest,
rangeland and mineral resources. PCMS is also known to contain
significant archeological and paleontological resources, including
giant fossilized dinosaur tracks in an area known as Picket
Wire Canyon.
This past fall (2006) the Army released the draft “Piñon
Canyon Maneuver Site Transformation Environmental Impact Statement”
for public comment, the first step toward an expansion that
would result in the taking of thousands of acres of land by
eminent domain and the establishment of the largest maneuver
and military bombing range in the country. The draft EIS seeks
authorization for an unspecified increase in use, including
joint service operations and multi-national training, and construction
of new support facilities costing $26 million, including a live
hand grenade range, an ammunition holding area, and a protective
equipment testing facility.
RtE Position:
Even though the Army has received permission from the Pentagon
to proceed with land acquisition, the DEIS fails to disclose
or evaluate the environmental impacts of expansion in violation
of the National Environmental Policy Act (“NEPA”).
In addition, the draft EIS violates NEPA failing to consider
a range of reasonable alternatives, failing to gather or disclose
environmental baseline information, and failing to describe
the activities that will occur if the project is approved in
sufficient detail to allow the public a meaningful opportunity
to comment. In light of these failures, the draft EIS is unable
to fulfill its function of reasonably informing the public and
agency officials of the project’s potential impacts on
air quality, water resources, wildlife, endangered species,
vegetation, and rural communities surrounding the base. Federal
environmental protections cannot be circumvented under the false
cloak of ‘National Security.”
Links:
Rock the Earth February
14, 2007 Comment Letter to DEIS
Pinon Canyon Expansion
Opposition Coalition
Purgatoire, Apishapa
& Comanche Grassland Trust
Not 1 More Acre! |
