The town of Harvard received no notice of plans to build a new firing range on the Fort Devens South Post. But when the Select Board learned about the project, members agreed they might want to join the town of Lancaster in addressing some written questions to the Devens base commander.
News of the firing range “was a shock,” Town Administrator Tim Bragan told the Select Board at its Oct. 20 meeting. “It just came out of the blue.” He had learned of the project just in the past couple of weeks, as the result of an Oct. 13 Lancaster Conservation Commission hearing and an email that a Lancaster resident sent to Select Board member Lucy Wallace. (See “Army surprises Lancaster with plans for new, larger firing range” in last week’s Press.)
The public review period for the proposed range was held last May, with notices published only in the Nashoba Valley Voice and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise. ”No comments from private citizens were received,” according to the Army’s environmental assessment, which was issued in June.
Bragan said Lancaster’s town administrator, Orlando Pacheco, intends to send a letter to the base commander with questions that came up in the Lancaster Conservation Commission hearing.
“Well, I think we should join those efforts to figure out what the impact will be,” Select Board member Kara Minar said, adding “I’d like to get a sense of what the noise impact will be.” She asked that Bragan get a copy of Pacheco’s letter, so Harvard’s Select Board members can also sign it, if they agree, and possibly add some queries of their own.
The Army has said that the range would remain a “light multipurpose machine gun range,” like the current one on the site, and that there would be no change in the frequency or duration of firing. The new range would largely overlie the old one, but be reoriented slightly and have a new command center and modern targetry.
The Lancaster Conservation Commission members expressed concern about the filling of a vernal pool and damage to other nearby wetlands, which are habitat for the threatened Blanding’s turtle. Among the commission’s other concerns was possible contamination from lead and perchlorate in Slate Rock Pond, which drains eventually into the Nashua River.
During public comment at the hearing, Lancaster resident John Farnsworth said his house was the closest residence to the base. He said he was worried the Army’s estimate of how far ordnance from the range would travel might be “a little short.”
