Got a news release couple of days ago. It announced this: "El Paso to Host Senate and House Joint Committee Hearing on Fort Bliss Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Impacts and Strategies."
The hearing is Tuesday (May 13) at the El Paso Community College—Transmountain Campus.
The news release states that "Participating Committees Include Senate Subcommittee on Base Realignment and Closure, Senate Veteran Affairs & Military Installations Committee, and House Committee on Defense Affairs and State-Federal Regulations."
Here's the quote that got my attention: "BRAC will impact education, public health, workforce, infrastructure and mental health agencies. To meet the challenge, we must prepare now," said state Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on BRAC.
The release from his office states the "The hearing will present the El Paso community with a unique opportunity to speak with both House and Senate leaders about BRAC's local impact and how the state can provide assistance."
That makes sense, and, without being too snarky, it reminded me of this NPT article from a year and a half ago.
Yeah, I'd say the time is now.
Presented is an excerpt from the Nov. 13, 2006 article, with a link to the full piece.
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Fort Bliss: Done Deal; Now, Let’s Talk Impact
More troops in the desert could increase El Paso air pollution, strain water resources, tear up fragile topsoil and destroy environmental and archeological sites. On the other hand, those troops also will bring in billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
So at a sparsely attended meeting at Chapin High School Thursday night (Nov. 9), meant to receive public comment on a draft report, hundreds of pages regarding the impacts on 14 areas, from environment to socioeconomics, the two hands were laid on the table.
When Bill Addington, who successfully fought a radioactive waste site in Sierra Blanca and since has become an advocate of the environment, read a statement from a former Fort Bliss biologist noting the consequences of large-scale growth -- increased water rates, traffic congestion, strain on schools, and destruction of unique desert lands -- Chamber of Commerce President Richard Dayoub shot up in his chair, started taking notes, and when it was his turn to speak, fired back.
“Granted, there are problems ... the realities are, the alternative would have been for Fort Bliss to shrink,” Dayoub said. Fort Bliss will have more positive economic impact than, say, the Toyota plant in San Antonio, Dayoub argued; El Paso must “embrace and recognize” the need for the U.S. military to prepare for conflict around the world.
The report under comment, a document called a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS), is meant to analyze how different options for Fort Bliss growth will impact the El Paso region. The analysis follows a decision by the Base Realignment Commission, known as BRAC, to greatly expand troop numbers and activities at Fort Bliss; essentially, once the community put its best face forward, convincing the military that water was not an issue, that schools and other infrastructure could handle a population increase, the deal was done. Now the public has a chance to analyze the deal in detail, through the SEIS.
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While we were there to see the desert, since we spent plenty of time in the vehicles moving from site to site, I started reading the SEIS. That’s when I realized what a resource the document was, and how many impacts Fort Bliss has on the area, and how the base expansion might be a bit of a test in many ways.
-- The draft states that El Paso’s water resources would be stretched to the limit as early as 2010, depending on the number of troops. To make up the difference, El Paso will increase water bills by up to 5 percent a year for the next 20 years; in addition, the utility will have to begin importing water by 2030, and possibly as early as 2010. The estimated cost of the infrastructure to get water from the utility’s “water ranches” about 100 miles to the east is $600 million.
-- Noise levels would increase with arms training, possibly enough to be heard in some off-post areas, including Chaparral, N.M.
-- The number of school-age children associated with Fort Bliss would jump under Alternative 4 to 39,000.
-- A question brought up during the public comment, but not in the draft SEIS, is whether Fort Bliss would be test-firing any weapons with depleted uranium, used to tip bullets because of its weight and armor-piercing capability. When it hits, it creates radioactive dust, and has proven to be a cleanup problem on the battlefield and training range -- for example, at Jefferson Proving Grounds in Indiana. Bob Geyer, who asked the question, said he was told depleted uranium would not be used at Fort Bliss, and he requested that the promise be put in writing in the final SEIS.
***
On the drive home, with several people in the car, a lively discussion about what we saw, and what was in the SEIS, ensued. What does it matter if some desert is destroyed, given the enormous need and desire by El Paso’s leaders to expand Bliss? And what is the value of some desert land, compared to billions of dollars, compared to jobs, compared to providing a livelihood for thousands of El Pasoans? What about the morality of depending on a war economy, or the long-term dependence on the federal government’s largesse? In Dayoub’s Thursday night comments, he pointed out the significance of Bliss -- 15 percent of El Paso’s economy, a percentage expected to grow.
More questions: Are the desert issues as significant as, say, the water issue, or air pollution, or the cost to schools, roads, and the social services?
Big questions, for which there are no easy or definitive answers. In the end, even the ardent defender of nature for its own sake, rather than the value it can bring, saw the difficulty of making his argument.
But he had a counter, one that I can’t get out of my mind: Somebody has to say these things, even if they don’t prevail, even if it’s not popular, or even if on balance the needs of the community outweigh the other considerations, so there’s a record that some people valued what was here, or questioned the value of economics over all else, and at least were able to bring an opposing view to the table.
Vatoman
May 11, 2008
This timely article asks some critical questions. When most of this community argue about the impact of reopening a copper smelter we need to ask ourselves what will be the total costs of expanding Ft. Bliss?
What is the true 'carrying capacity' of our High Mountain Chihuahuan Desert? Have we already passed this stage and now need to bring in resources from other areas, thus having a negative impact on the environment and on a sustainable a way of life in other parts of West Texas?
Is dependence on Pentagon largess a good sustainable economic development model in the long term or is this being pushed through by the vested interests like the Chamber of Commerce and REDCO.
On the other hand, if El Paso did not have Ft. Bliss we would still be a thriving border community but more like Laredo or Brownsville instead of good size City.
This article asked the hard questions before we get to the point of no return. Critical thinkers in this community must join the conversation because one of us just might have the impact that affects generations to come. There is both positive and negative in this expansion. Many other communities would have given up even more to get this BRAC expansion but are we in El Paso giving up too much?
helen marshall
May 11, 2008
From the 2006 article: El Paso must “embrace and recognize” the need for the U.S. military to prepare for conflict around the world.
This is a straight-up call for war - for killing people - as the basis for our economy. Given that the US now spends more on the military than all the rest of the world combined, perhaps it is realistic. But is this not a sad comment on who we are and how we choose to live? Or did we choose? I see in Jimmy Janecek's piece in the "other daily paper" today that the city chose to support Ft. Bliss's expansion. I have voted here for over thirty years, and I don't recall ever being asked in a referendum to indicate my preferences as to whether a massive expansion of Ft. Bliss would be a good thing for the city.
Suppose Ft. Bliss had shrunk? Would El Paso have become an unliveable place?
These are moot questions now. But we can learn much about ourselves by reflecting on this history and the choices that we were not asked to make.
Marty
May 11, 2008
I welcome more troops at Ft. Bliss. They are a welcome bunch with pretty high standards compared to the general population.
I hope we see that when an obvious soldier in uniform is in line somewhere, waiting, or
especially the post office, that we offer our closer place in line to
him or her as we did back in the 1940's and 50's.
Since we have little luck attracting industry and many other businesses that continually place their going-out-of-business signs, that we welcome the troops with open arms as a permanent fixture to El Paso, as we have always done.
Ft. Bliss will not be hanging out any going-out-of-business signs any time soon and will be a constant flow of people, expertise and money flowing into El Paso. El Paso desperately NEEDS those with expertise to be and stay in the area to further and raise the knowledge and education base.
Many will also seek higher education and different vocations increasing our rich mix of professionals.
This rich new mix of people will bring skills they learned way back in Ohio and Kansas and Illinois
way before they got here. Their spouses will also bring new skills of the same sort.
We will see many new private businesses open here that never existed here before.
We should find out what outside services they need, like give-a-soldier-a-ride when they need it
and lost cost or free legal help, and yard care, or help with their houses for the spouses while they are out of the area.
Roll out the welcome mat. If not already done, start a Welcome Wagon just for new troops at Ft. Bliss
and send each one, a Welcome Letter, hand signed by the Mayor, a basket of goodies and gifts from local merchants, and permanent discount cards from local business that DO NOT EXPIRE, when they show their
Active Duty Military ID. That's the way they should be treated !
Let them sign up for pen pals with locals that they can be in contact with thru email when they
are 20,000 miles away to talk to and to help with any errands they need done here.
Many will be single and don't really have anyone to contact while away. I have seen many storage units
sell off, at auction, lots of units of personal stored family heirlooms when the soldiers can't get back in time
to pay or answer the storage units while they are sometimes recovering in a Navy Hospital Ship somewhere in the Gulf.
What can WE do to help them?
Dr. Z
May 11, 2008
Expanding Ft. Bliss will be a welcome change to the stagnation that is /has been going on here.
Ft. Bliss already owns the land. There is nothing you can do about that. Ft. Bliss was here before you were born. Ft. Bliss IS El Paso.
Ft. Bliss is our sister city and friend. We need the influx of all these different people.
Welcome to Ft. Bliss and El Paso !
In all modern times, we have always been a military town.
That's who El Paso IS.
Ft. Bliss is exactly the opposite of "Brain Drain", that the city has.
it's new people, new ideas, new recruits for the police and fire departments when they get out, and many are already trained in those jobs.
Will
May 11, 2008
I remember hearing something about the Future Combat Systems (FCS) being headquartered in El Paso as well. Anybody know about this? Its significant, as its the most expensive modernization the US Army has ever undertaken. El Paso should by the law of causality be drawing in all sorts of high-tech, high-paying firms in everything from avionics manufacturing to weapons testing and armor companies. And of course with access to the maquila industry in Juarez for production sharing capability and plenty of UTEP/NMSU engineering students to draw from, my question is, where do we stand on this? Is anything being done?
DJ
May 11, 2008
El Paso is not alone in pinning a large part of the city's economy to military and federal installations. In fact, nearly every large city in the US Southwest has some part of its current or historical economy based on federal dollars, often in the shape of military installations.
San Antonio is the city it is today in great part to the numerous bases that surrounded it and provided a huge part of that city's money and people. Tucson grew on two major Air Force and Army facilities and still depends on them. Amarillo refines plutonium for nuclear warheads. Houston's growth exploded after LBJ put NASA there.
Albuquerque would be an interstate crossroads without Sandia and Los Alamos Labs (which btw design and build nuclear bombs, if you really want to discuss the morality aspect). These labs give that city the world's largest concentration of science and engineering PhDs in the world, no small distinction.
The federal impact on the entire state of New Mexico represents a very large chunk of the state's economy, anywhere from one-fourth to nearly half, depending on who you talk to.
Going out from there geographically, most of the great cities in this country have a federal component to their success, currently or at some point in their past. Even the spiritual home of the "anti-military" nut-jobs, San Francisco (and it's cross-bay college town Berkeley) owe a great deal of their size and economy to military dollars (but don't remind them.......it may conflict with their leftist-pacifists delusions.)
Of course Ft. Bliss will change El Paso, that goes without saying. It always has. In many ways, Ft. Bliss IS El Paso....... and has been since the 1840s when this territory was purchased from Mexico by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and later Gadsden Purchase.
As an American city, El Paso and Ft. Bliss are inseparable. We are fortunate to be considering the problems and challenges and opportunities of present and future growth, as opposed to the alternative that many communities around the country are facing, that of base closures and the shrinking of tax bases as employed, responsible citizens and their well-paying jobs leave town.
To the Army's credit, Ft. Bliss has been coordinating planning and helping to pay for the needs for additional resources and infrastructure for years, with the city and county, with the school districts, with the colleges and universities, with law enforcement and with local businesses. Don't forget that the desalination plant for our future water supply and many other infrastructure upgrades were Army projects.
Those who think they didn't "vote" on this growth are seriously mistaken. Check the newsletters and campaign promises and platforms of every single one of our elected officials for the past decade, from City representatives to our Congressman to our Texas Senators. Ft. Bliss and BRAC stand as the greatest success story of political and civic cooperation in El Paso's history. Hopefully we will take the lessons learned from our success here to make more great things happen, as it's a textbook example of how thing get done.
Jimmy Janacek
May 11, 2008
El Paso presently has the blessing of a cheap water supply that will accommodate the current population for 50 years. We have struck a balance between the available water supply and the number of people who live here. However, that balance will not last for long.
EPWU has raised the price of water by 93% and they are using the money to subsidize growth. They are bringing in more people, not more water. Therefore we will soon be out of balance again.
EPWU projections show an annual demand of 127,996 acre feet compared to a supply of 116,205 acre feet in the year 2010. Demand will exceed supply by 9% in 2010, 20% in 2010, 30% in 2030, 38% in 2040, 47% in 2050 and 57% in 2060. Someday, EPWU will collect at least $675,192,0002 from its’ customers to bring in more water. The EPWU President refers to this event as a “train wreck.”
In 1997, a task force produced a report titled “An Economic Development Strategy for the Sustainable Use of water in the Paso Del Norte Region.” That report says “Water rates should be increased to provide a financial incentive for water conservation.” The task force apparently assumed revenue from the price increases would be used to increase the water supply. However, EPWU is using the money to bring in new customers without bringing in new water. Current water customers are being forced to pay for their own demise.
The report points out that “Economic distress in the region fosters growth-at-any-price attitudes among political leaders concerned with increasing employment opportunities.” The PSB, EPWU and the City Council should take note of the following recommendations in the report:
Policy 5.4-P-1: Promote water policies that allow the free market to function, to create a “pay-as-you-go” economic system whose market pressures, over time, will naturally slow population growth and discourage wasteful practices.
Policy 5.4-P-2: Pay the “real cost” of water by factoring in the cost of research, exploration and development, and exploitation of supply, into the rate structure and eliminating governmental policies that have the effect of subsidizing new development.
Policy 4.1-P-3: Control land development to optimize the use of the region’s water resources.
Action 4.1-A-4: Assess impact fees on new development sufficient to cover the public costs associated with expanding public infrastructure to serve the developments.
The task force would do a great service to the community if they came back together to review this issue and make a recommendation to the PSB, EPWU and the City Council.
Mike
May 12, 2008
Troops are welcome, what are not welcome are the attitudes and bad apples that come with some of them. There is a HUGE difference between Air Defense troops and Infantry, Cavalry soldiers. ADA guys/gals are much more laid back, while the troops we are getting are combat soldiers,. There have also been reports in the media nationally about gang members infiltrating the military, most are in combat units. A lot of those solidiers killed or injured in motorcycle accidents have been from combat units.
I suspect crime rate in El Paso in a couple of years will not be the 2nd or 3rd lowest in the nation.
Realism
May 14, 2008
The growth of Fort Bliss and the El Paso community as a whole is both positive and exciting. The one issue I get tired of hearing about though is all the companies REDCO is talking to. Companies that are attached to the different units that are making their way to El Paso are going to set-up offices here, regardless if REDCO is talking to them or not.
REDCO needs to focus on expanding the impact of the new companies by working with them to address not only the needs of the military, but the needs of the El Paso community.