Pueblo Chieftain article

Army stands its ground at Pinon Canyon

New report answers federal court ruling against heavier use.

Posted: Sunday, January 23, 2011 12:00 am

By PETER ROPER | proper@chieftain.com | 3 comments

It was 16 months ago that U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch handed the Army a legal setback in its plan to ramp up training at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site.

But a lull in the legal battle over expansion of the site apparently is over.

Matsch ruled the Army's environmental impact study was clearly inadequate and that evidence demonstrated the Army's past failures to protect the prairie grasslands that make up the 238,000-acre training range.

Ranchers and other opponents of the Army's nearly five-year campaign to expand Pinon Canyon celebrated the ruling, seeing it as a formidable roadblock against a heavier and more damaging training schedule that the Army sought to use as justification for wanting more land around the 238,000-acre training area northeast of Trinidad.

On Thursday, the Army released a new Pinon Canyon Environmental Assessment to answer to Matsch's ruling. The 43-page report defends and reasserts the original "proposed action" to ramp up training at Pinon Canyon.

And surprisingly, given the sternness of Matsch's criticism of the 2007 environmental study, the new report argues that whatever damage occurs from heavier training at Pinon Canyon, the Army will follow environmental safeguards in repairing and protecting the land.

Further, the report says, a full environmental impact study is not needed.

While Army officials have been careful since Matsch's ruling to say they only want to use Pinon Canyon at "historical levels" allowed by the 1980 decision that created the training area, historical use is open to wide interpretation in the new assessment report.

The new report acknowledges that  Pinon Canyon has been little or sporadically used since 2002, but says that does not constitute the historical record.

"Our position is that our training is limited to the historically authorized levels until we complete (a full environmental study) of increased training above those levels," Fort Carson officials said in a statement Friday.

"Instead of a having a 'default' position as to how many months we may train each year, we would set our training schedules based on a balance between training needs and the environmental effects of that training," the statement said.

The assessment report  is more blunt, concluding "the proposed action may be approved and implemented without significant adverse, unmitigated environmental impacts. As a result, proceeding with a (full environmental study) is not necessary."

As to how much additional training can Pinon Canyon withstand, it says "the upper level of training that can be accomplished while still maintaining a sustainable environment has not yet been determined."

For the opponents who took the Army to court in 2008, the new assessment boils down to the Army defying Matsch's ruling and insisting it will determine what the historical levels of training have been and whether the training range is being damaged by heavier use.

"Neither acts of Congress nor the federal judiciary have deterred the Army from moving ahead with its plans," said Jean Aguerre, president of the Not 1 More Acre! group that won the lawsuit in 2009. She was referring to Matsch's   ruling as well as a formal ban on the Army spending money to expand Pinon Canyon - money that Congress has renewed each year since 2008.

"The Pentagon continues to defy every level of democracy while holding an entire region and its people hostage," Aguerre said in a statement Friday.

In releasing the new environmental assessment, the Army has agreed to a 60-day period for public comment. The report can be read on the Fort Carson website and in paper form at the public libraries in Pueblo, La Junta, Trinidad, Rocky Ford, Walsenburg and Canon City.

The Army also plans two public meetings for comment: 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. , Feb. 16  at the Otero Junior College student center in La Junta; and 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 17 at Trinidad State Junior College's Sullivan Center in Trinidad.

The assessment says that after the comment period, Fort Carson garrison commander Col. Robert McLaughlin will decide whether a full environmental study is needed or whether the new assessment is sufficient to justify heavier use of Pinon Canyon.

Aguerre could not say Friday whether Not 1 More Acre! will go back to court over the latest assessment.

In his September 2009 ruling, Matsch vacated the Army's decision to increase the training use of Pinon Canyon. He said its 2007 environmental analysis was inadequate and that its own "after action" maneuver reports showed extensive environmental damage to the range.

Also, he said the Army's own analysis in 2006 indicated that Pinon Canyon could only be used about five months of the year in order to allow the prairie and grasslands to recover. He scolded the Army, saying its own studies and analysis contradicted its request for more training at Pinon Canyon.

The new assessment takes on Matsch's criticism in several ways. As to the the "after action" reports - which were discovered during the lawsuit - the Army argues those are largely anecdotal and without any real data to prove extensive land damage.

"Also, the apparently dire consequences described in some of the (maneuver reports) were belied by the generally good condition of (Pinon Canyon)  at present," the assessment says.

The new report also argues there isn't hard data on how often Pinon Canyon can be used. It does note that Fort Carson's training areas are in use about 75 percent of the year and are able to recover.