1997 CPEO Military List Archive

From: "Laura Olah" <olah@speagle.com>
Date: 17 Feb 1997 11:05:24
Reply: cpeo-military
Subject: ARMS PROGRAM FAILS AT BADGER AAP
 
ARMS PROGRAM FAILS TO MEET OBJECTIVES
Army's proposal Rejected by Communit

by Laura Olah, Executive Director
Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB)
February 17, 1997

 A recent proposal by Wisconsin's Badger Army Ammunition Plant 
(BAAP) has been rejected by environmentalists, local government 
officials, and regulatory agencies alike. The defunct 7,400-acre 
facility -- on standby status since 1975 -- has become the focus of a 
county-wide battle to preserve the area's rural quality of life, 
endangered natural resources, and local economic health.

 The controversy is in response to a September 18, 1996 
announcement by Olin Corporation and US Army to initiate an aggressive 
marketing scheme to bring pulp & paper industry, varnish, paint and 
lacquer manufacturers, ethanol and cosmetics industries, and nitrogenous 
fertilizer plants to the plant by 1997. Set in a rural landscape 
characterized by quiet pastureland, farming communities and peaceful 
woodlands, it is hardly a surprise that a proposal to convert the idle 
plant to an active industrial park has met opposition.

 The targeted industries were identified in a Strategic Planning 
Process which excluded nearby communities, local town, village and county 
boards, planning and zoning authorities, and other stakeholders. During 
the entire nine-month planning process -- costing $275,000 taxpayer 
dollars -- there were no public meetings.

 The reindustrialization proposal is the result of the 1992 
Armament Retooling and Support Act (ARMS). Under the ARMS initiative, 
private firms are encouraged to use Army ammunition facilities 
(specifically government-owned, contractor-operated) for commercial 
purposes. The program was intended to respond to facilities like 
Virginia'S Radford Army Ammunition Plant, where a recent lay-off resulted 
in the loss of thousands of jobs. By contrast, BAAP has not had a 
significant job loss since the mid-1970's and today employs only about 
100 people. 

 Under the ARMS program, contracts are made available to private 
industry for one or more years. The companies currently under contract 
for the maintenance of these Army Ammunition facilities are offered a 
Facilities Use Contract to develop and implement a reuse plan and in 
return receive part of the rent from new industry brought on-site. At 
BAAP, the operating contractor is Olin Corporation. 

 There is a strong sentiment in the Community that the ARMS 
program is not applicable or appropriate for the BAAP facility and Sauk 
County. A flat labor market, housing shortages, overflowing schools, and 
other stressed infrastructure are all signs that additional development 
in the area is not warranted. Furthermore, community members maintain 
other possible uses for the site have not been evaluated. These other 
options may in fact provide much greater benefits to the Community than 
reindustrialization.

 One of the assets cited by the Strategic Plan is open, currently 
undeveloped land. Local residents are very concerned 
reindustrialization may promote uncontrolled development of agricultural 
lands within the plant for new industry. Contrary to statements in the 
Strategic Plan, there is a decline in available farmland in Sauk County, 
which is reflected by local farmland preservation ordinances. Moreover, 
the value of farmland and small farms is highly prized in the area. 
According to the Wisconsin Agricultural Statistics Service, there were 
1,580 farms in Sauk County in 1995 and the average farm size was 233 
acres -- relatively small in terms of modern agriculture. 

 BAAP itself lies primarily on the terrain of the former Sauk 
Prairie including sixteen remnants of natural communities including 
prairie, oak savanna, dry forest, southern hardwood swamp and sandy 
meadow have been identified. The base is also home to a wide variety of 
animal species including some that have been classified as rare, 
endangered and threatened. BAAP is surrounded by the Baraboo Range -- a 
National Natural Landmark. Composed of quartzite, the hardest rock on 
earth, it covers 144,000 acres in parts of Sauk and Columbia county. The 
25 mile range extends from Rock Springs in the west to just west of the 
interstate highway in adjoining Columbia County in the east. It stands 
as high as 799 feet above the Wisconsin River and is one of the largest 
and most ancient rock outcrops in North America. 

 The Range includes 55,000 acres of forest -- the largest tract of 
southern upland forest remaining in an ecoregion which covers 40,000,000 
acres in part of 5 states (central Minnesota through southern Wisconsin, 
northeastern Iowa, northern Illinois, and northwestern Indiana.) 
Although the Range covers less than 0.5% of this area, it supports 68% of 
all breeding bird species, 44% of all mammal species, and 37% of all 
reptile species found in the ecoregion. This ecoregion is home to over 
18,000 species of plants and animals, including 135 species of breeding 
birds alone. 77 of these plant and animal species are rare or imperiled 
in the state. 25 are on the state or federal lists of threatened and 
endangered species. 

 Reindustrialization has met broad local opposition including 
local government boards. The Town of Merrimac, Village of Merrimac, Town 
of Sumpter, Town of Honey Creek, Town of Spring Green and Sauk County 
have all passed resolutions opposing the proposed reindustrialization.

 Local business organizations, including the Baraboo Economic 
Development Council, have drafted resolutions opposing BAAP's proposal
New industries coming into the plant will not have to pay real estate or 
property taxes, and as the county and many of the local communities have 
already invested significant resources in developing their own local 
industrial parks, they are concerned about unfair competition. The Sauk 
Prairie School District Administration has written to the Army objecting 
to the negative financial impact on the district.

 The U.S. Department of Interior, the Wisconsin Department of 
Natural Resources, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have 
written letters forewarning potentially negative primary and secondary 
impacts on the adjacent Baraboo Range ecosystem. The Ferry Bluff Eagle 
Council, a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect wintering 
American Bald Eagles, has documented serious concerns about the potential 
harm to this endangered species and its habitat. 

 Sixteen environmental groups, including the Rural Alliance for 
Military Accountability, Sierra Club, Madison Audubon Society, Aldo 
Leopold Chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology, the Baraboo 
Range Preservation Association, and several chapters of Physicians for 
Social Responsibility have co-signed a letter opposing the proposed 
reindustrialization. 

 In response to the proposed reindustrialization of BAAP, Citizens 
for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) hosted a series of four (4) public 
meetings to encourage and solicit community input and consensus. Public 
meetings were well attended, averaging 60 participants. The group has 
collected over 600 signatures from local residents opposing 
reindustrialization.

 CSWAB has called for the closure of the Badger Army Ammunition 
Plant. Maintenance of BAAP -- although not in production since the 
1970's -- costs taxpayers millions of dollars each year. In 1991 alone, 
maintenance costs exceeded $17 million. Built in 1942 in response to 
World War II, the production facilities are obsolete and would 
require over $119 million in upgrades to meet current state and federal 
environmental standards. In addition to these extraordinary fiscal 
costs, environmental damage continues to plague the facility -- since 
1975, there have been over 56 chemical spills and incidents.

 Environmental cleanup of the Badger plant, operating 
intermittently since 1942, is expected to exceed $250 million. Of the 40 
contaminated military sites in Wisconsin, the Defense Environmental 
Restoration Agency has cited BAAP as the most contaminated; 32 areas 
within the plant are polluted with high levels of solvents, toxic metals 
and explosive wastes. Groundwater beneath the plant is saturated with 
cancer-causing chemicals, including carbon tetrachloride, 
trichloroethylene and dinitrotoluenes. An area known as the Propellant 
Burning Grounds is the source of a three-mile long plume of contaminated 
groundwater that has migrated several miles offsite, polluting private 
drinking water wells in its path and dumping into the Wisconsin River. 

 Citizens for Safe Water Around Badger (CSWAB) was organized in 
1990 when the community learned private drinking water wells near BAAP 
were polluted with high levels of cancer-causing chemicals. The founders 
believed community involvement could have prevented this tragedy and 
consequently organized CSWAB both to empower and to protect nearby 
residents and plant workers from further harm. For more information, 
contact CSWAB at (608) 643-3124. 

* * *

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