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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