BOURNE, MASS. (WHDH) - For troops in training, every shot counts.
To ensure that, the U.S. National Guard received federal funds to build a new machine gun range on Camp Edwards in Bourne. This range would meet training requirements that their current training location cannot support.
Without it, Massachusetts troops would need to travel more than 300 miles to Vermont for specialized pre-deployment training.
“If they have to go to other locations, that takes away precious time for us to do our missions,” said retired Brigadier General Matthews Kennedy. “It’s not once and done like a certification or license. This is something you need to exercise.”
Time is particularly precious for the guard, whose soldiers only have 39 training days a year.
But the gun range project stalled in 2021 when state leaders and the Environmental Protection Agency questioned how the range would affect the groundwater reservoir below.
“This particular facility is the wrong project in the wrong place for the wrong reason,” said Andrew Gottlieb of the Association to Preserve Cape Cod. “The scale of magnitude of what they’re proposing to do is so much more vast than what they’re already doing.”
Environmentalists fear that the large number of bullets fired at the new range could pollute drinking water that serves nearly 250,000 people on the Cape.
In 2023, the EPA warned that bullets used at firing ranges contain metals that can seep into soil and potentially reach the groundwater.
“We can achieve the dual objectives of providing training and protecting the Cape water supply by having a more thoughtful discussion on where this training could happen,” Gottlieb said.
The National Guard said soldiers have been shooting guns on bases for more than 100 years, and their bullets have never impacted the drinking water.
7 Investigates reviewed previous EPA studies that back the guard’s position.
“We have all the scientific facts that show that machine gun ranges that small arms do not pollute the aquifer,” said retired National Guard Brigadier General John Driscoll. “Right here is one of five active gun ranges on base they’re using the same exact ammo that would be used on the new proposed range. The only difference is that new range will meet new federal standards.”
“Small arms ranges never, are never, will never, be a problem to the aquifer,” said Shawn Cody from the Army National Guard Impact Area Groundwater Study Program.
The guard recently revised its plan for the new range to address some of the health concerns. But environmentalists aren’t budging.
“It is a risk that is not warranted,” Gottlieb said.
“The science is on our side,” Driscoll said.
The EPA is continuing to review the plans for the gun range but has no deadline for a decision.
it’s going to hurt our soldiers training,” Driscoll said. “It’s going to hurt the taxpayers of Massachusetts and all the stuff that we try to do to be good environmental stewards, it doesn’t matter to them.”
If a decision isn’t made by September 30, the federal funds for the training facility will be lost.
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