Joint Base Cape Cod's proposed machine gun range: What we know so far

The Barnstable County Board of Regional Commissioners reaffirmed their opposition to the proposed multi-machine gun range at the Joint Base Cape Cod last week.

The Massachusetts Army National Guard has proposed building a machine gun range on Camp Edwards on the Upper Cape base, which has drawn opposition due to environmental concerns. The base sits above the region's sole-source aquifer, which supplies drinking water to the Upper Cape. Opponents of the proposal contend activities on the range could contaminate the water.

The Guard's proposal for the machine gun training range calls for clearing 170 acres of forest and disturbing about 199 acres of land. The selected location is the current KD, or "known distance," range at Camp Edwards. 

"Our hope is, with the new Healey-Driscoll administration, a whole new slate of state officials are going to take a fresh look at this; it's important that they understand there are very serious concerns among Cape residents and officials regarding this project," said Mark Forest, chairman the county board.

In September 2021, the commissioners sent a letter to state regulators expressing their opposition. 

EPA review yet to be completed

In August 2021, EPA Region 1 informed the Guard and the Department of Defense that it would review the proposed $11.5 million machine gun range proposal to assess whether the project poses any significant hazard to public health. 

According to the EPA, the Cape Cod aquifer was designated as the sole or principal source of drinking water for Cape Cod. As a result, projects proposed to be constructed on Cape Cod that receive federal financial assistance may be subject to a sole-source aquifer review, as outlined in the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The EPA initially anticipated completing its review in the Spring of 2022 but extended the timeline to the end of 2022. But the EPA has not yet released any official statement regarding the update and the expected completion date of the review. 

"We, along with everyone else, are anticipating the outcome of the EPA review and understand that nothing significant is going to happen until the EPA review is complete," said Andrew Gottlieb, executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. 

"Our position on the project has not changed at all; we remain as adamantly opposed to the siting of the machine gun range in that location, and we look forward to working with the new Healey administration to ensure that the standard protection required under the law to preserve a water supply reserve are upheld."

Commissioners appeal to Healey-Driscoll administration to stop the machine gun range

According to Forest, the county commissioners will continue to make the case that the aquifer needs to be protected and hope that the new administration will look at all the evidence.

"We have compiled and presented a 15-page legal opinion that outlines all the deficiencies of the project and an environmental review; we hope that if there's a fair and objective look at all the evidence, then the project will get shut down," Forest said. 

More:How Tungsten missed the mark

The expectation is the new administration will take a hard look at this project and come to the same conclusion that this project is misguided for the location, he said. 

"This is the wrong project in the wrong location that doesn't belong here; the military should be looking at other alternatives to the Cape that don't jeopardize water supply for the region," Gottlieb said. 

Cape Cod machine gun range first proposed in the 1990s

The Guard first proposed building a machine gun range on Camp Edwards in 1998. But, according to Forest, a year later, Republican Gov. Paul Celluci vetoed the proposal to protect the groundwater. The action came after a six-month Times investigation that found the base was the source of toxic pollutants that contaminated billions of gallons of water in the aquifer on the Upper Cape.

More:Bullets: 'Simple' solutions favored for Camp Edwards

In 2002, a law was passed protecting the 22,000-acre base and permitting only military use and training that "is compatible with the natural resource purposes of water supply and wildlife habitat protection."

The National Guard Bureau renewed the project in 2020 and approved it on April 30, 2021, in an environmental study that found no significant impacts from the gun range. 

Joint Base Cape Cod, home to the Army and Air National Guards and the U.S. Coast Guard, was declared an EPA Superfund in 1989. Over $1.2 billion tax dollars have been spent on the effort to clean up chemicals and fuel that had been used for decades and had seeped into the aquifer, area water bodies and soil on and around the base.

Contact Rasheek Tabassum Mujib at rmujib@capecodonline.com.

Get the Cape Cod news that matters delivered to your inbox. Sign up for our free newsletters.