Now Is the Time to Save Castner Range

Castner Range Poppies

Those who are interested in preserving Castner Range as open space will want to attend 3 meetings open to the public beginning tomorrow evening. The meetings are sponsored by the military and deal with issues impacting the preservation of Castner Range.

The Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition has worked tirelessly to secure Castner Range from the military and to preserve it as open space. The efforts of members, Mike Gaglio and Judy Ackerman, were recently written about in a story by Robert Gray for El Paso Inc: To clean and preserve: What's next for Castner Range.

At issue with Castner Range is the existence of unexploded ordnance from many, many years of artillery practice. Before any land can be transferred, it must be "cleaned" of all such "live" ammunition.

Efforts by Gaglio, Ackerman and others have been made through Congressman Reyes' office to convey the land for preservation. A recent update from El Paso Mayor Cook's office of those efforts states:

"There was an appropriations request made by Congressman Reyes for Castner Range. It was made to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee for $300,000 under the Frontera Land Alliance to maintain Castner Range. The project would focus on preserving open space. The House report does include a full request for the project - $300,000. There is no funding included in the Senate version of the bill. The conference report is not available yet but it is my understanding through conversations with Congressman Reyes’ office that there is a high probability of it being included in the final bill.

"Also, there was language included in the House Committee Report for the Defense Authorization bill. The language reads as follows:

'The committee understands that the Department of Defense ceased operations at the Castner Range Complex at Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1971. In testimony, the Army indicated that Castner Range is ‘‘wholly impractical to use for any range activity.'

"The committee is interested in maintaining this land for a conservation purpose. The committee encourages the Department to enter into a lease in furtherance of conveyance with eligible conservation entities."

Here is information about and a schedule for each of the meetings this week:

Wed Oct. 14, 6:30 - 9:00 p.m. Restoration Advisory Board (RAB). 9600 Dyer, Northeast Regional Command Police Department.

Draft Agenda includes:

- Wide Area Assessment (WAA) of Castner Range
- Site Inspection (SI) of Former Maneuver Area 1 and 2 Between Loop 375 and Hueco Mountains

Thurs Oct. 15, 1-5 p.m. Military Munitions Response Program (MMRP) Site Inspection Technical Project Planning Meeting. Embassy Suites, 6100 Gateway East.

The second Technical Project Planning (TPP) meeting for the MMRP of the Former Maneuver Area at Fort Bliss. The purpose of the meeting is to discuss any outstanding issues related to the Historical Records Review report and to discuss the approach that will be used to conduct the field work phase of the Site Inspection. Please contact Mary Franquemont (mfranquemont@tlisolutions.com) or Gene Barber (gbarber@tlisolutions.com) to RSVP for the meeting or if you need additional information. TLI Solutions, Inc., (303) 763-7188 (main), (303) 716-3724 (direct), http://www.tlisolutions.com/Index_TLIS08.html (Agenda attached)

Fri Oct. 16. 1-5 p.m. Wide Area Assessment (WAA) of Castner Range. Radisson Hotel. 1770 Airway Blvd.

The U.S. Army will conduct a demonstration of “wide area assessment” (WAA) technologies to characterize the presence of munitions on Castner Range, Fort Bliss, Texas. WAA technologies rapidly collect large amounts of data about relative densities and distribution of munitions. The WAA field demonstration project will involve deploying multiple airborne and ground-based systems for detecting munitions and munitions related surface features. The Army invites you to participate in a series of Technical Project Planning meetings (TPP) for stakeholders and interested parties to discuss the project. (Enclosures with maps attached)

Judy Ackerman suggests that, if you can't make all of the meetings, then be sure to make the RAB meeting on Wednesday night especially. Next in importance is the Friday afternoon meeting which will deal with actual methods to clean the range.

Ackerman says:

"I believe that we need to ensure a conservation conveyance before the cleaning. Otherwise, clean land is subject to development. Perhaps we can get the Army to commit (in writing) to convey all cleaned land (some is already clean) to the Franklin Mountains State Park."

The Franklin Mountains Wilderness Coalition is urging all who can to attend the meetings to show support for preserving Castner Range as open space.

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