DENVER—The chairman of the House Oversight Committee has asked the Army to explain why it targeted 49 square miles to add to a southeast Colorado training site and whether it plans to lease the land instead of buy it.
Rep. Edolphus Towns, a Democrat from New York, asked Army officials for the answers to a half-dozen questions about the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site by April 10.
Colorado Democratic Reps. John Salazar and Betsy Markey released a copy of Towns’ letter to the Army on Monday.
The Army says it needs to expand the site to accommodate new weapons, new tactics and additional soldiers. The site is used by Fort Carson.
Opponents say the Army hasn’t justified the expansion, and that it would hurt the economy by removing so much land from agricultural production.
Towns also asked the Army for information on projected cost savings from the expansion; the current planning, time frame and type of training under consideration; whether the Army will do a complete environmental impact assessment; and what alternatives exist, if any, to the expanding the training site.
Army spokesman Dave Foster declined to comment Monday.
The site is currently 370 square miles.
Reports surfaced this month that the Army plans to lease 49 square miles, or 100,000 acres, rather than buy it. That would address one concern of critics that the expansion would take so much land off the tax rolls that local government would suffer.
Salazar and Markey have accused the Army of ignoring a moratorium imposed by Congress in January 2008 on spending for the project.
