The machine gun range has been under development for years and has repeatedly attracted controversy due to plans to locate it on part of the base that is critical to Cape Cod’s drinking water.
BOSTON (SHNS) – Barnstable County’s Board of Regional Commissioners last week called on Gov. Maura Healey to take action as it voted unanimously to reaffirm its opposition to a proposed machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod and to reiterate its intent to sue if the project advances.
The machine gun range has been under development for years and has repeatedly attracted controversy due to plans to locate it on part of the base that is critical to Cape Cod’s drinking water. The latest plans, according to Cape news radio station WCAI, are scaled back from the original and feature three shooting lanes, a control tower, and other infrastructure.
The Barnstable County commissioners say the project threatens the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve, a 15,000-acre tract within the base that serves as a source of drinking water for the base and four Cape Cod towns, and they want Healey to use her powers as commander in chief of the Massachusetts National Guard to halt the project.
“The EPA has determined that the project is an unacceptable risk to Cape Cod’s drinking water supply and the Governor can and should act now. The precedent was established by former Governor Paul Cellucci, who stopped a similar project on May 19, 1998,” Commissioner Mark Forest of Yarmouth said. “At that time, he called the proposed machine gun range a direct threat to Cape Cod’s drinking water supplies. He then proceeded to help pass bi-partisan legislation creating the Cape Water Supply Reserve.”
Healey’s office did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
A former Congressional aide, Forest said the Barnstable County commissioners hope the training that would take place at the Joint Base Cape Cod machine gun range “will move down the highway at the new ranges on Fort Devens and we can avoid litigation.”
Last year, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft report that it said found that the machine gun range as originally proposed “may contaminate the Cape Cod Aquifer, thereby creating a significant public health hazard.”
WCAI reported last week that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will host the EPA and Mass. Army National Guard for a day-long meeting on Oct. 30 aimed at coming to a common understanding. NASEM said it will act as a neutral facilitator for a discussion of “the scientific and technical issues surrounding potential impacts to the Cape Cod aquifer from the Massachusetts Army National Guard’s proposed machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod.”