"Bombs Away! ..."

["cpeo@cpeo.org" <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Complete article at:
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/features/zakin061699.html

Bombs Away! 
Is the military about to blow its chance to protect southwestern desert? 

by Susan Zakin 
06.16.99 

A bombshell exploded a few weeks ago in the midst of tangled negotiations
over the fate of the 2.7 million-acre Barry M. Goldwater Bombing Range in
the Sonoran Desert of southwestern Arizona.

The Air Force accidentally dropped a 500-pound bomb April 30 on a part of
the range that the Air Force is proposing to turn over to the Bureau of
Land Management, said Col. David L. White of the Air Force. The BLM wants
to include the land in a national conservation area that would be open to
hikers, hunters, off-road vehicle users, and other recreationists.

"It was a mistake," said White.  "It shouldn't have happened.  But when the
land is so close and so adjacent to High Explosive Hill, those things can
happen."

The bomb was ejected from an A-10 attack aircraft and landed in the desert
about a quarter of a mile from the intersection of the two main dirt roads
in Area A, a 90,000-acre tract that Air Force biologists say contains the
densest stand of saguaro cacti in the state.  Area A is about four miles
from High Explosive Hill, which is frequently bombed in military training
exercises.

"The earth at the point of impact is gray powder," said an Air Force
biologist who visited the site.

The errant bomb raises questions about the Department of Defense's proposal
to turn over this section of the range to the BLM (see <a
href="zakin050799.html">"Home, home on the bombing range"</a>).  The
proposal is part of complicated horse-trading now underway to reauthorize
the "withdrawal" of federal land in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and Alaska
for military use...

CONTINUED

http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/features/zakin061699.html