APCC Opposes the Proposed Multipurpose Machine Gun Range on the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve

Update 10/17/2024

CAI’s reporter Eve Zuckoff, Without a shot fired: how the long battle to build a Cape Cod machine gun range ended

Update 9/30/2024

The Healey-Driscoll administration announced today that no construction contract would be awarded for the proposed multipurpose machine gun range (MPMGR) at Joint Base Cape Cod. The 2020 funding authorization for that project expires at midnight.

APCC has long considered that the construction of the MPMGR represents a significant threat to the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve. APCC has argued that alternatives exist that would provide the required and necessary training to National Guard troops without threatening the water supply. Today’s announcement validates and reinforces that view. APCC applauds the Healey-Driscoll administration’s dual commitment to provide necessary military training and to protect of our most precious water resources.

APCC thanks our active and engaged membership for making sure that decision makers understood the importance of clean water. Your voices were heard and made a difference in achieving the right outcome in a difficult and complex public policy matter.

Update 8/14/2024

The Cape Cod Regional Government Assembly of Delegates call on Governor Healey (PDF) to act decisively to prevent irreparable, but avoidable, harm to the irreplaceable Upper Cape water supply.

Update 6/3/2024

APCC sent a letter to Senator Warren (PDF) about the MPMGR funding extension and asks its membership to do the same.

Update 5/23/2024

In a major victory for clean water, the House Armed Services Committee, by unanimous bipartisan action, removed the extension of the funding authorization for the proposed multipurpose machine gun range (MPMGR) at Joint Base Cape Cod from the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The successful amendment to the draft bill was spearheaded by Congressman Keating, a longstanding champion of clean water for Cape Cod, who was able to convey the importance of protecting the Cape’s sole source aquifer to the republican leadership of the Armed Services Committee. The 2025 NDAA now achieves the correct balance of priorities as it appropriately extended the funding for the MPMGR at Fort Devens, an initiative APCC formally supported (PDF) before the Armed Service Committee, to create an in-state training facility for our troops, while continuing to prioritize the protection of critical water resources.

Our thanks and appreciation go to Congressman Keating for helping to engineer a rational and appropriate solution that achieves two important public policy objectives: ensuring adequate training through the Devens MPMGR for those who protect the nation and ensuring that Cape Cod continues to have clean drinking water. APCC now looks to the senate and Senators Warren and Markey to ensure that the senate follows suit with the policy direction charted in the House.

APCC asked our membership to respond and to email the Congressman’s office with your concerns, and over 700 of you did. The emails made a big difference to the outcome, and were very persuasive evidence of the strong public desire to maintain our water resources.

Update 5/20/2024

A one-year extension for funding the MPMGR has been included in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (H.R. 8070) by the House Armed Services Committee’s Subcommittee on Readiness that would extend funding beyond the current expiration of September 2024. APCC sent comment letters to Congressman Keating asking his help on this urgent matter in making sure that the MPMGR funding extension does not move forward in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act. Read the letters here (pdf 1, pdf 2).

Update 5/2/2024

Senators Warren and Markey and Congressman Keating sought an update form EPA on the status of their determination that the proposed multipurpose machine gun range (MPMGR) represented a significant threat to the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve. The EPA response revealed a revised proposal from the Guard that modified the MPMGR. APCC has reviewed the modified proposal and finds it to be an abject failure and an inadequate response to the risk of contamination. Read the Congressional inquiry, the EPA response that references the Guard’s proposal, and APCC’s critique in a letter to the EPA Region 1 Administrator.

Update 10/19/2023

MPMGR bids exceed available funding – APCC has obtained documents from a public records search that indicate the cost to construct the multipurpose machine gun range, which according to EPA threatens the Cape’s water supply, is more than the funds appropriated for the project.

The Massachusetts National Guard has resisted APCC’s requests for information, but other sources of public information have revealed an apparent shortfall in funding needed to build this as-yet permitted project.

While APCC has no direct knowledge of what the Guard plans to do to address the funding deficit, APCC has had direct conversations with the offices of Senator’s Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey as well as Congressman William Keating, asking them to block any efforts the Guard may undertake to seek supplemental funding from Congress to build this ill-conceived project. (See letter.)

Even though everything related to Congress is confusing and uncertain these days, APCC remains vigilant in trying to prevent any additional public funds to be set aside for a project that has been identified as a potential significant risk to the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve.

Update 5/17/2023

Wednesday, May 24 public hearing will begin at 7:00 p.m. and will be preceded by a public meeting beginning at 6:30 p.m. It will take place at: Center for Active Living, 70 Quaker Meetinghouse Road, Sandwich, MA

Written comments due to EPA by June 26th. Email to: R1SSAComments@epa.gov For sample email and talking points, click here.

Update 05/04/2023

APCC Calls on Gov. Healey to Support EPA Findings on Machine Gun Range

Update 04/27/2023

CLICK HERE for the EPA draft determination and information about the public hearing process. https://www3.epa.gov/region1/eco/drinkwater/capecod/adminrecord/ssa-report-eport-final-april-2023.pdf

Click here for the entire administrative record. https://www3.epa.gov/region1/eco/drinkwater/capecod/adminrecord/

EPA will hold a short public informational meeting followed by a public hearing to accept oral comments.

Wednesday – May 24, 2023
Public Meeting – 6:30 pm
Public Hearing – 7:00pm
Center for Active Living
70 Quaker Meetinghouse Road
Sandwich, Massachusetts

*for accessibility or translation requests, please email melanson.kate@epa.gov

If you would like to send written comments, please email them to: R1SSAcomments@epa.gov

Update 04/24/2023

APCC calls on the governor to reconsider the uses at Joint Base Cape Cod. See APCC’s letter to Governor Healey here (PDF) and the related press release here (Word).

Update 04/19/2023

APCC learned of a 50 year lease extension for the JBCC until 2099. Concerned by the lack of public process with the lease extension APCC requested all related documents (PDF). The Guard converted all documents into paper and sent them to APCC and we scanned and digitized them for publication. The following are PDF links to the documents we received:

Supplemental Agreement No3
Military-Civilian Community Council MC3 Meeting
Major General Gary W. Keefe Email
Memorandum For ARNG-IEP-R
Colonel Sean D. Riley Email
Colonel Matthew Porter Email
Colonel Richard Cipro Email
Colonel Jason D. Oberton Email
Colonel Timothy Mullen Email
Christopher Faux Email
Public Records Request
Colonel Jason D. Oberton Email
David Shannon Email

Update 10/26/2022

The status of the multipurpose machine gun range continues to be in a holding pattern as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency conducts its sole-source aquifer study related to potential impacts to drinking water from the project. The state’s Environmental Management Commission (EMC), which has the authority to approve or deny the project, will not take up consideration of the machine gun range until the EPA is finished with its study. It is anticipated that the EPA study will extend to the end of 2022, making a decision on the project by the EMC unlikely until 2023. APCC continues to closely monitor the project and will keep the public updated as events warrant, including issuing alerts and providing information on actions you can take.

Update 11/12/2021

In light of the news that a machine gun range was funded for Fort Devens, APCC submitted a request for public records on October 13 to deduce whether the Fort Devens’ machine gun range was included in the alternatives analysis for the proposed multi-purpose machine gun range on the Upper Cape water supply. A response (PDF) was received November 3, 2021 from Timothy F. Cullen, Massachusetts Military Division, Legislative Liaison, Joint Force Headquarters who said in his email that there were no studies, reports, and analyses specific to Ft. Devens that met our request. Click here (PDF) for the records they released to us.

Update 10/13/2021

In the news: From WCAI – A proposed machine gun range on the Cape has come under fire. A second in the state just got funded by Eve Zuckoff; from the Cape Cod Times – Fort Devens is getting a new machine-gun range. Why didn’t JBCC officials mention it? by Jeannette Hinkle

Update 9/27/2021

APCC formally requested that Governor Baker use his authority to stop the misguided pursute of the siting of a Multi Purpose Machine Gun Range atop the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve. A copy of the letter can be viewed here (PDF).

Update 9/8/2021

After filing not one, but two public records requests under the Massachusetts Public Records law and then having to appeal to the Secretary of Commonwealth to compel full disclosure, APCC finally and belatedly received records from the Massachusetts National Guard that contained emails from Brigadier General Christopher Faux, Joint Base Cape Cod executive director, which expressed concern that the proposed multipurpose machine gun range could not sustain the scrutiny of a full environmental study, and if it was required, the Guard “will most likely lose the project and its funding.”

These illegally withheld records are the smoking gun that reveal, in the Guard’s own words, what we suspected all along. The Guard was afraid of a full Environmental Impact Study. It is not much of a leap then to see why the Guard ignored legitimate public comments and concerns on their internal Environmental Assessment; doing so was the only way to avoid a full EIS. Given how the Guard’s own statements lay bare their abuse of, and disregard for, the public’s right to participate in the protection of its sole source of drinking water it is obvious why the Guard would not want the public to see these emails.

To read APCC’s press release, click here (PDF). To read the emails in question, click here (PDF).

Update as of 8/2/2021

All meetings concerning the machine gun range have been postponed until further notice. Please check back or sign up for our emails for future meeting notices and alerts.

Update as of 6/17/2021

The meetings of the Community Advisory Council (CAC) and the Environmental Management Commission (EMC) on the proposed multi-purpose machine gun range have been postponed. No new dates and times have been announced.

Update 6/7/2021

It has been apparent to APCC that the Massachusetts National Guard has viewed the public process associated with the proposed Multi-Purpose Machine Gun Range as something to endure and not as an opportunity to assess and address public comments and concerns. That view was validated last week based upon a communication from the commanding general of Joint Base Cape Cod to the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce where he derided the almost 400 people who formally commented on the project as “naysayers, activists and anti-military groups.” The Guard has, in its own words, provided evidence that it lacks respect for public comments not fully supportive of the project (of which, as stated by the Guard, there were almost none). The statement provides the proof that invalidates the public review process that led to their own declaration that the project would have No Significant Impact on the environment.

APCC has written to Governor Baker, to call on him to restore the public trust that has been violated by the Guard’s own actions and words by rejecting the range project. APCC believes that decisions about the use of public resources must be reliant on full and impartial consideration of the public interest and that it is now unmistakable that the consideration of the machine gun range has been tainted by the expressed bias of the Guard. Without a valid review, there is no legal basis upon which the project can be approved.

The next step in the process is the meeting of the Community Advisory Council on Thursday, June 17th. (The details of the meeting are not yet available.) APCC urges the public to participate in this meeting and convey concerns directly to the CAC as it considers its recommendation to the full Environmental Management Commission, which will meet on July 12 to determine the fate of the project.

Not only is the protection of the public resource that is the Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve at issue here, but so is the right of the public to a full and fair hearing under the law. If this project, and the flawed and biased process used to promote it, are deemed acceptable, the public will have lost more than its drinking water and wildlife habitat.

APCC sent a letter to Gina McCarthy, White House National Climate Advisor you can read here.