Machine Gun Range

Warren made her comments after speaking with staff and program participants at Cape Abilities, a nonprofit organization that helps provide vocational training programs, housing, and transportation for people with disabilities.

This week: The EPA's draft report slamming a proposed machine gun range at Joint Base Cape Cod has drawn more than 1200 public comments. A judge says Sandwich can demolish and rebuild its iconic boardwalk. And without enough police officers, Falmouth cancels its Fourth of July parade.

This week: Vineyard Wind takes delivery of the very first pieces for its very first offshore wind tower. The machine gun range gets a hearing with the EPA. And now we know what’s in the water that nuclear plant owner Holtec wants to dump into Cape Cod Bay. A big week in news!

Colonel John Bagaglio, garrison commander of Camp Edwards, the base’s main training facility, told a public hearing that the Guard hopes to work collaboratively with the Environmental Protection Agency to resolve concerns and allow work on the 138-acre gun range to proceed.

The Environmental Protection Agency is expanding ways the public can comment on its recent report that found a proposed machine gun range on Joint Base Cape Cod could contaminate the region’s drinking water and create a significant public health hazard.

A meeting marked the first discussion by a local governing body of the Environmental Protection Agency draft findings. The Barnstable County Commission plans to vote on a statement formally supporting the EPA's findings at its next meeting. That will be on May 24, the same day the EPA will hold a hearing for members of the public who want to comment on the draft report.

“[We] will provide a robust response during the public comment period,” the Massachusetts National Guard said in a statement. “The Massachusetts National Guard remains deeply committed to upholding environmental protections while providing our personnel with a range that serves our complex training needs and enhances soldier readiness.”

For the last 20 months, the EPA has conducted an “exhaustive” scientific review of the Massachusetts Army National Guard’s design and operational plans for the proposed site. The agency’s scientists specifically studied potential impacts to the Sagamore Lens, the aquifer that provides Upper Cape towns with nearly all their drinking water.

For the past two-and-a-half years, the Massachusetts Army National Guard and local opponents have been locked in battle over whether a machine gun range should be built at Joint Base Cape Cod. We traveled with the Guard to their training range in Vermont to see and hear what the future may bring to the Cape.

Few people outside of the military will sleep in an army barracks, pass through machine gun training, or stand within feet of one of the military's deadliest weapons as it's fired. In this audio journal, CAI reporter Eve Zuckoff shares the experience of traveling north to Camp Ethan Allen, in Jericho, Vermont, to get a closer look at the people, drills, and weaponry that could come to a proposed machine gun range on Joint Base Cape Cod.