Paula Ozzello on PCMS

The Army came to Trinidad on Thursday night to attempt to justify its latest environmental assessment on how it can ramp up training at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site.

This is Paula Ozzello's public comment.
She is the spokesperson for the Southern Colorado Environmental Council.
The SCEC wants to see 50 test wells on site, not the 9 presently active.

Army Col. Robert McLaughlin, Fort Carson garrison commander, repeated the lie that expanding Pinon Canyon is no longer the Army's goal — but that making more use of training area is.

No one at the public input session supported the idea.

Judge Matsch already ruled that the Army's "after-action" training reports demonstrated that extensive environmental and archeological damage was done during previous training, so that putting the same terrain to an even heavier use could not be justified by the EIS the Army did in 2007.

The latest study doesn't even address those concerns.

In its new EA, the Army dismisses Matsch's findings about previous damage, saying those "after-action reports" were largely anecdotal, not scientific. It argues that no scientific data has been collected to determine how much training can be done at Pinon Canyon before violating environmental obligations to protect the prairie range.

The EA just says the Army will follow all environmental and historical protection requirements without any scientific assessment of what damage a 50 ton tank will do to the fragile short-grass prairie and the historical and archeological sties covering the PCMS.

A waiver, allowing for the purchase of more land to expand the PCMS was granted by the DOD in 2007, and is still in effect.

Please contact your local, state, and federal legislators.
Let them know that we MUST CONTINUE THE FUNDING BAN AND TO ASK THE DOD TO REMOVE THE WAIVER.

pinoncanyon.com
pceoc.blogspot.com/
not1moreacre.net
markudall.senate.gov/?p=contact
bennet.senate.gov/contact/
tipton.house.gov/contact-me
gardner.house.gov/contact-me
lamborn.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=3
colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/GovHickenlooper/CBON/1249674240317

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• PCMS
• PCEOC
• Army
• pinon
• canyon
• expansion
• Colorado
• cowboy
• cattle
• fort
• carson
• McKinley
• Lon
• Robertson
• Lori
• Doug
• Holdread
• Animas
• Wooten
• cow
• livestock
• Otero
• County
• commissioner
• waiver
• expand
• grow
• transition
• Expansion
• Opposition
• Coalition
• Not 1 More Acre
• Environmental Assessment
• weapon
• defense
• warfare
• Trinidad
• La
• Junta
• Jim
• Herrell
• Matsch
• after-action
• training
• conservation
• Colonel
• Robert
• McLaughlin
• Scott
• Tipton
• Steve
• Corey
• Gardner
• Keith
• Goodwin
• Gary
• Hill
• LATN
• combat aviation brigade
• CAB
• Ozzello

[onedot]

Paula is so articulate and so sensible. Thank you for posting.