hello friends, i’d like to tell you a story about the beautiful place i call home. long post coming up.
do you think climate change is bad but you know the responsibility of a solution does not rest on the individual or you’re just not sure what you can do?
do you like seeing birds and other animals around your home and where you live and think they deserve safe, undamaged habitats?
do you think we should do as much as possible to preserve our clean water sources?
do you think the military spending budget in the united states is way too much?
if you answered yes to any of these you might be interested in this story.
i live on cape cod, in massachusetts. it’s a peninsula that reaches out into the atlantic ocean, so it’s surrounded by salt water. you might wonder how does such a place get fresh drinking water without having to pump it in from miles away?
we’re fortunate enough to have one of the most productive ground water systems in new england, but it’s highly permeable and susceptible to contamination within its watershed. [source]
this groundwater system has been designated as a sole-source aquifer. that means almost two hundred thousand people rely on this water source year round, and in the summer the population here literally doubles with tourism.
wow it sure would be bad if something happened to it.
wait—something bad did happen. between 1989 and 2009 an area here was listed by the EPA as a superfund site. the national guard had contaminated their military base on cape cod with spilled chemicals and fuels, landfills, and munitions, including lead bullets and live explosives. [source]
let’s see where that military base is located.
the military base is located on 22,000 acres of land directly above the largest part of the aquifer. unrelated to this specific issue, but don’t you think we could so something better with and for this land? i don’t know, just a thought, seems like the military doesn’t need 22k acres stolen from the wampanoag especially if they’re just going to pollute it.
so here’s why i’m angry. they want to do this again. the national guard wants to spend $11 million to build an eight-lane machine gun firing range right above the water source.
the national guard has been going forward with this plan without providing outside environmental review (they reviewed it themselves and said it was fine) and without engaging in dialogue with the community.
also a fun note, the brigadier general-whatever-the-fuck that is of the national guard has threatened the local chamber of commerce and is quoted in the above linked source with some expectedly bad takes.
cutting down 170 acres of trees in a region that is essential habitat to hundreds of species of migratory birds, as well as other animals, is devastating
cutting down 170 acres of trees that could remove and store carbon from our declining atmosphere for decades to come is irreversible damage
cutting down 170 acres of trees and shooting toxic ammunition over an area of 5,000 acres above a water source that hundreds of thousands of people rely on is just a really bad fucking idea
if you’re read this far, thank you. i’m going to tell you one way you can help. right now facing climate change as an individual feels hopeless, at least to me. the best tools we have to fight with are our voices, and they always have been. the association to preserve cape cod has created a form you can use to email appointed officials who have the power to stop this. you can also donate to the apcc, but i’m not asking you to. i’m just asking you for your voices.
please reblog this post, because someone might come across it who lives here who doesn’t even know this is happening. i love this little spit of land with all my heart and i know others do too.
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