'We don't want to poison anyone.' Military defends machine gun range in Bourne

CAMP EDWARDS — As a turkey vulture rode the air in wide, languid arcs over Camp Edwards' Sierra Range, an expansive sandplain grassland dotted with 70 stationary targets soldiers use for M4 and M16 rifle training, the popping of weapons firing could be heard from a neighboring range.

Unfazed, the massive bird continued to circle, hunting for some small prey brave enough to venture out among the native warm season grasses. In front of a group of civilian visitors May 19, Major Alex McDonough, safety officer and deputy base operations manager, and Jake McCumber, natural resources manager for the Massachusetts Army National Guard, talked about how military training and conservation and environmental work coexist.

A public tour of Camp Edwards on Joint Base Cape Cod — the first of six — was designed to give members of the public a chance to see and learn about the base's soldier training venues, Natural Resources Program and habitat conservation work, and the Impact Area Groundwater Cleanup Program.

Tour stops included the engagement skills trainer, a weapons simulator within the Tactical Training Base Kelley area, the base's groundwater treatment facility, Sierra Range, and the KD, or known distance, range.

Base managers believe it was an ideal time to highlight the work happening there that benefits and protects not only people, but wildlife and the environment, especially with the Massachusetts Army National Guard hoping to build a multi-purpose machine gun range, and in light of ongoing work to monitor and clean up groundwater contamination plumes from past uses that is the topic of much public interest.

Machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod EPA expands ways to comment on proposed machine gun range at base; hearing set for May 24.

All eyes on the proposed machine gun range

The 1,000-meter KD range, deactivated since 1997, is the proposed location for the machine gun range — a project that's raising concerns about its potential impact on the environment, in particular the Cape's sole source aquifer.

After a comprehensive evaluation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently issued a draft determination that the range has the potential to contaminate the aquifer and create a significant public health hazard.

The draft finding will be the subject of a public hearing at the Sandwich Center for Active Living on May 24 and at which the Guard will give a formal comment. During the tour, McDonough did not directly speak about the draft finding, but he and McCumber emphasized the importance that's put on the health of the ecosystem at Camp Edwards.

Explosives, which often have contents not friendly to the environment, are no longer used at the base, McDonough said. The base only allows copper ammunition rounds, he said, banning lead rounds which were used in the past.

"People have said we're going to have explosives (at the machine gun range) and things like that. No. Anything that goes 'boom' is banned, and we agree with that," McDonough said as the tour group gathered at the edge of the KD range, with its view of the military reservation's spinning wind turbines in the distance.

As for the impact of the proposed range, he said, "what we can do is show through science that the (currently used) small-arms ranges haven't contaminated the aquifer, that we can build this range and responsibly manage it to a high degree of standard."

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

A 'solid responsibility' to protect drinking water

McDonough said the Guard, which operates the base, has "a solid responsibility to protect everyone's drinking water because it's not only the community that drinks it, everyone on base drinks it, too."

"We don't want to poison anyone. We don't want to poison ourselves, and we certainly don't want to poison anyone in the surrounding towns," he said.

Plans for the range include the same precautions used at the base's active weapons training ranges, including monitoring wells and regular soil sampling. To illustrate their success, McDonough noted that in the 10 years Sierra Range has been in use there have been an estimated one million copper rounds fired and zero detections of contamination.

Uncommon, even threatened, wildlife thrives at base firing ranges.

During the tour officials spoke of the ongoing wildlife conservation at the base over many years, significantly within the SDZs, or surface danger zones — open areas extending from a firing location on a range "to a distance downrange, based on the projectiles fired," according to the U.S. Army.

It is a misconception that the SDZs are "like a habitat dead zone that nothing can live in," McDonough said.

In reality, agreed McCumber, "these ranges tend to have high levels of (wildlife) diversity."

The wildlife biologist mentioned the meadow jumping mouse and the smooth greensnake as two species that are uncommon in the region but found on the base's ranges. Also present are the grasshopper sparrow, listed as a threatened species in Massachusetts, and the frosted elfin butterfly, listed as a species of special concern. Additionally, the base boasts the highest density population in the state of eastern whip-poor-wills, another species of special concern.

McCumber said the base is also home to "one of the best examples" of a North Atlantic coastal pine barrens, "a globally rare ecosystem that works very well with soldier training."

"This is a conservation success that we're very, very proud of. There's just not enough knowledge outside of here how successful it's been," McCumber said.

That success reflects on efforts over the last two decades guided by Chapter 47, a 2002 state law that emphasize groundwater and wildlife habitat protection in tandem with quality soldier training — a mission, he said, that's taken "very seriously" there.

Cape Cod aquifer Cape military base wants a machine gun range. EPA says it could be a public health hazard.

Here's when you can tour the base.

As discussions about the the machine gun range, cleanup efforts and water monitoring continue, McDonough said he hopes members of the public will tour the base before forming an opinion.

"Actually walking the ground and seeing it is worth a million words and pictures," he said.

Tour dates are Fridays, June 23, July 14, Aug. 18, Sept. 22 and Oct. 20, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Tours are limited to 36 people. To register, send an email with name and phone number no later than noon on the Thursday prior to the tour to: Emily.d.kelly2.nfg@army.mil or call 339-202-9341. A confirmation email will be sent with more details.

The May 24 public hearing on the proposed machine gun range will be live streamed via Zoom at https://usepa.zoomgov.com/j/1605125622?pwd=TXkyY29CNG9vR2tvUEkraWNONm82dz09. Public comments will not be accepted over Zoom, but they can be submitted in person at the hearing at 70 Quaker Meetinghouse Road, Forestdale; by leaving voice messages at 617-918-1800, or by sending emails to R1SSAComments@epa.govo. Public comments will be accepted through June 26.

Keep connected with the Cape.  Download our free app. 

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: National Guard defends machine gun range at Camp Edwards in Bourne