Citizen-Input Ignored on Pinon Canyon

Five legislators have decided not to wait for public input or facts-on-the-ground before lobbying Washington bureaucrats for military in Colorado. Senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet have joined together with Representatives Doug Lamborn, Mike Coffman and Ed Perimutter in urging the Pentagon to expand militarism in the state. In a letter to Secretary of the Army, John McHugh and Army Chief of Staff, General George Casey they advocate for an increased troop build-up at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. http://markudall.senate.gov/?p=press_release&id=604.

Their endorsement of the Army’s proposal to add a Combat Aviation Brigade is premature, coming in advance of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement. The purpose of this forthcoming EIS is two-fold; it is supposed to give these legislators a picture of the environmental and social impacts of the proposal, and it is the public’s opportunity to officially register their opinions and concerns. So it’s disturbing that these five legislators have decided not to wait until the public has had a chance to participate in the EIS process and the potential impacts of this expansion have been studied. Instead they are aggressively promoting this build-up, in advance of the public process.

One of the disturbing implications of the proposal is that it would be used to force the expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site where much of the training for the Combat Aviation Brigade would occur. An earlier environmental study titled, Grow The Army stated that unless Pinon Canyon is expanded, increased training at the site, would be sub-standard, excessively expensive. The addition of a Combat Aviation Brigade at Fort Carson/Pinon Canyon was rejected in that EIS, but is now being resurrected.

Increasing the training burden at Pinon Canyon would have the effect of forcing an expansion of the training range. Such an expansion would require the federalization of thousands of acres of state and private lands. Such increased militarization has been opposed by the citizens through resolutions of opposition by every city and county in the region. Opposition to the federalization and militarization of our State has also been expressed through two different bill passed by the Colorado legislature, one of which withdraws the consent of the state for the federal government to acquire land for the expansion of Pinon Canyon, and another which prohibits the sale of state land to the federal government for such a purpose.

And finally, through the efforts of Representatives Salazar and Markey a congressional ban on spending for the expansion of Pinon Canyon has been enacted annually for the last three years.

Army documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act reveal a Pentagon 17-year plan for the phased transform of Southeastern Colorado into a vast, 6.9 million acre, live-fire range for “all U.S. and allied forces.” According to Army documents such a seizure would require the removal of 17,000 citizens from their lands and homes. The addition of the Combat Aviation Brigade would advance that agenda.

These five elected officials should allow the process to move forward. They should wait for the Environmental Impact Statement to be completed. They should give the public a chance to weigh in. Then they should listen to that input and carefully consider their decision to support the Army’s plan. They should not be acting as lobbyists for the military-industrial complex.