YOUR TURN: A lame duck’s opportunity to save Cape Cod
Now that Gov. Charlie Baker has decided to not seek re-election, it could make some hard decisions a bit easier. Doing the right thing always comes with a cost, and not having to ask for votes again frees him to do some difficult things as he leaves office.
For Cape Cod and everyone who lives or visits here, the right thing for Baker to do is terminate the National Guard’s deeply flawed plans to build a huge, heavy-caliber machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod.
As long as he’s in office, Baker has the power to block the firing range: The governor is commander of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, with direct authority over what happens on JBCC.
He also has leverage with the Environmental Management Commission — the final state regulatory hurdle JBCC must clear before it can start building the range. The EMC, composed of three state agencies that report to Baker, oversees compliance and enforcement of environmental standards on the land at JBCC where the range would go.
And he has precedent. Then-Gov. Paul Cellucci in 1998 canceled the National Guard’s plans to build five training sites on the northern half of Joint Base Cape Cod, specifically to protect the environment and groundwater there — the exact same issues at stake with the machine gun range today.
Bucking a huge, entrenched military bureaucracy is hard — even when it ignores environmental damage and clear opposition from the businesses, local governments and residents who live here. Baker has hinted at his doubts about the firing range but hasn’t committed.
There are many reasons why he needs to come off the fence. Here are four.
First: The environment and public health. The range would be built in the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve — state-designated specifically to protect the Sagamore lens, the sole-source aquifer for the Upper and Mid-Cape. The reserve was established in 2002 after past military activity seriously polluted the groundwater; mitigating past JBCC groundwater contamination has cost taxpayers more than $1 billion and counting.
The firing range also would clear-cut 170 acres of forest without any replanting and commandeer 5,000 acres as a safety zone. Woodwell (formerly Woods Hole) Climate Research Center estimates losing 170 acres of trees would release 16,895 metric tons in CO2 emissions and eliminate the capacity to remove 313 metric tons of CO2 from the atmosphere each year. In the fight against climate change, this is surrender.
Second: JBCC’s fundamental dishonesty in how it maneuvered to build the Cape Cod machine gun range. JBCC’s chief justification for the range was that no nearby alternative exists for training its troops in heavy weapons use; that argument vaporized when the Army announced this summer it will build yet another new machine gun range at Fort Devens in northeastern Massachusetts. JBCC leadership knew about these plans for an alternative range but failed to disclose or account for it.
Third: JBCC’s deceitful efforts to ramrod environmental approval for the firing range with a quick internal review that blocked input from local governments and residents. After repeated legal action, we discovered why: Emails from Gen. Christopher Faux, JBCC executive director, to U.S. Rep. Bill Keating’s staff revealed that Faux admitted his gun range could not survive an independent environmental impact analysis. Even Faux knew the Guard’s fast-track internal review, claiming “no significant impact,” wouldn’t hold up to external scrutiny.
Fourth: Gen. Faux’s outrageous attempts to silence his critics. In an email to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce earlier this year, Faux tried to get the chamber to support the range by prohibiting his troops from patronizing Cape businesses unless local shop owners toed his line. But the chamber publicly rejected Faux’s threat and called out JBCC for failing to engage with local communities about the project.
With the stroke of a pen, Gov. Baker can rescue JBCC from the PR disaster it has made for itself, prevent the National Guard from wasting $11.5 million on a duplicate machine gun range that it can’t legitimately justify, and protect Cape Cod’s environment, drinking water and residents.
As one of his final acts, it would be a jewel in Gov. Baker’s considerable legacy if he does.
Andrew Gottlieb is executive director of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod.
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