The Army says its Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeast Colorado is just big enough to accommodate the addition of about 6,800 soldiers at Fort Carson, but that the quality and cost of training might suffer without an expansion.
The assertion is in a draft environmental impact statement released Friday on the proposed troop increase at Fort Carson, outside Colorado Springs.
Fort Carson soldiers train at Piñon Canyon, about 100 miles to the southeast. The Army had proposed expanding the Piñon Canyon site from 370 square miles to more than 1,000 square miles, but recently scaled that back to about 525 square miles.
The military says it needs more space for new weapons and tactics. Commanders have said they need room for the planned expansion at Fort Carson. But Friday’s statement says that Piñon Canyon as it stands can handle the additional troops.
Area ranchers oppose the expansion. They suspect they’ll be forced to sell their property and that the economy will suffer from the loss of agricultural land.
They also say the Army hasn’t demonstrated that it really needs more land.
The Army says it wants to acquire property only from willing sellers.
The 900-page draft impact statement deals primarily with the military’s plans for Fort Carson under the “Grow the Army” initiative, which includes adding an infantry brigade with about 3,500 soldiers, an aviation brigade with about 2,900 soldiers and support units with about 400 soldiers, all by the end of 2012.
If all the units are added, Fort Carson would have 32,000 soldiers.
That includes two brigades of about 3,500 soldiers each that Fort Carson has already gained under a round of base closures and realignments in 2005.
