[CPEO-MEF] Picatinny Arsenal and potential base closure

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Picatinny Arsenal has instinct for survival

Morris County facility has had two close calls

Editor's Note: Another round of military base closings is expected in
2005. In an eight-part series, Gannett New Jersey assesses the strengths
and weaknesses of the state's military installations and the impact they
have on the Garden State's economy.

Today: Picatinny Arsenal.

By ROB JENNINGS 
Gannett New Jersey 
December 30, 2004


ROCKAWAY TWP - Talk of base closings makes people jittery at Picatinny
Arsenal, a 6,500-acre base that is the U.S. Army's headquarters for
weapons research and development.

Picatinny, which ceased weapons manufacturing in 1977 and will mark its
125th anniversary next year, has survived two close calls in the past 15
years. In 1990, the commanding general of the Army's Materiel Command
proposed transferring Picatinny's operations more than 1,000 miles away
to Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., where missile and rocket
programs are headquartered.

...

"Assuming the Army doesn't nominate (Picatinny) - which is my guess, but
I really don't know - then the question is, does somebody else come to
the BRAC commission" and urge that the base be converted to a
nonmilitary purpose, Coyle said.

That would seem extremely unlikely in Picatinny's case, given the
extensive history of environmental contamination from its era of weapons
manufacturing. Picatinny is a Superfund site, with contamination
including dioxin and explosives in the soil. A decade ago, the eventual
cleanup cost was tagged at $500 million. Frelinghuysen, while saying
"you want to call it an ace in the hole," questioned whether the Army
would want to be responsible for an expedited cleanup.

Coyle said the environmental cleanup factor might undermine the basic
point of a BRAC closing - to save money.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m123004e.htm

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org
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