Show Serving Utah’s Great Pahvant Valley Otttl lit ah iZLQQ In county S2500 out of months S1300 countv-- (In Advene ) Senior Citizen (65 and older) SI 8 Copy 50c 00 In rountv 52600 out of county USPS 0 Vol 80 27 January No 18 1990 Commentary West Desert is ammo dump (Editor’s note: ThU Is the first stallment of a series about military bombs and bullets found in the West Desert and elsewhere in the nation The Inventory of such incidents is far from complete It is too vast to Ignore Given proposed expansion of military activity in Utah and nationwide It could get worse The potential for public hazard is ominous That potential will be analyzed in the second part of this article next week) For the past 40 yean incidents of expended shell casings live rounds and uncxploded bombs have been reported in Tule Valley on both east and west slopes of Fish Springs Mountains near Swasey Mountain in Whirlwind Valley in the Confusion Mountains and in Pleasant Valley in northwest Utah Similar incidents have also been reNew ported in Nevada California Mexico and elsewhere On Sunday May 28 989 Ken Rand of Delta Michael Rand and Jamie Hargis of Salt Lake City went to an area in the desert that had been described to them by University of Utah biochemist Within minutes and DrPcterHovingh with no difficulty at all they found six cannon shells mid several clips lying on the ground One of the rounds was uncxploded The location was exactly where on March 12 1988 Hovingh found three 20mm cannon shells and a clip The stuff was found lying in the ruts of a jeep trail one mile north of Tule Spring The trail runs between Tule and Coyote Spring in Tule Valley in Millard County The maa ta 2ftatilM US and about 35 miles south Highway of the Utah Test and Training Range which is owned by the Department of Defense Hovingh left the shells there but he 1988 with BLM House returned May Range Resource Area Manager Rex “I pointed out the shells to Rowley him” he said I thought he should know what is happening out in Tule Valley" Rowley took the shells back to his office in Fillmore where they were sent to the Air Force along with a letter asking for an explanation The letter read in part “Wc in BLM had no idea that live ordnance was being fired from military aircraft onto BLM- administered public lands Upon checking with our personnel in the House Range Office we discovered that other employees have also found similar cartridges on public land These have been found primarily along the east side of the Fish Springs Mountains and Swasey Mountains None were collected “We are enclosing the three cartridges and link that were found on May in hopes you can investigate and find out why military pilots are firing live ammunition into the floor of the West Desert some miles south of the Wendovcr and Gunnery Bombing Range" The letter was dated May 24 1988 (Editor’s note: the Ah Force reply will be explored in our next Issue) Verl Tolbert of Delta owns a grazing He found a 20mm permitatTuleSpring shell in the summer of 987 while gathering cattle It was in the same area the others were later found ' “I let one of the boys take it to show and tell or something to school and I asked somebody who seemed to know about it but it w as just a practice deal out of a plane or something" he said “I've never felt like it's been a threat to me" Tolbert said "but I didn’t know what they were doing either" If the incident at Tule Spring was isolated it might be put to rest as curiosity But there are more: machine Rowley has a gun shell in his desk drawer that was found east of Fish Springs Mountains Range technician Gale Bennett gave him the shell “We got to talking about it (the T ule Spring incident) and he said he'd picked up some similar casings at various places out there on the desert" Rowley said “He'd found more than one In fact he told me he'd found a whoie belt at one time" Bennett calls himself a "desert rat" Mike Tule Rand and Jamie Hargis hold shells and Spring Note the unexploded round RANGE ' 4582 m SMALL hill U 4433 at MARSH shells m HOUSE RANGE If willow SPRING ONE MILE s - ter" ® TULE p SPRING ’ TO ANTELOPE SPRINGS If it & DELTA doesn’t explode is it still a bomb? "Navy finds 1389 live bombs on BLM land" was the headline of an article in the Reno (Nevada) dated Friday Dec 22 1989 The article is noteworthy in view of proposed military expansion across the country including the electronic battlefield proposed for Utah's West Desert The article detailed results of l sweep of public land near Fallon Naval Air Station bombing ranges “Some of the bombs may have been dropped as long as 30 years ago" the article said The sweep was conducted by more than 275 military personnel in a area now temporarily closed to the public It produced: 123375 pounds erf ordnance scrap metal 28136 rounds of ammunition ranging from rifle rounds cannon rounds — 1389 live bombs — and 2230 duds Military officials said the area w as "92 percent clear of surface ordnance" Still using the figures provided the extent of the public safety hazard that exists in the area in question can be approximately quantified: Amount of ordn ance scrap metal per acre: 8 pounds Distribution of rounds of ammunition per acre: per 241 Thursday January I X'XOYOTE SPRING 4 I Coming to Delta on PM they found near CONFUSION - at 7:30 clips 25 1990 He has found a lot of shells in (he desert even before he started working for the BLM 15 years ago “I found them in Whirlwind Valley" he said “and I found them cm both sidcsof Fish Springs and I’ve found them out in Tule Valley” A sheepherder once gave Bennett a clip of uncxploded shells “Evidently they’d jammed a gun or something like that” Bennett said “and just kicked them out" The clip was found in the Confusion Mountains Bennett said all the shells he found were and all quite old Among other artifacts found in the West Desert a clip of unexploded machine gun bullets has been cm display in the office of the Millard County Chronicle Progress in Delta for years The shells are green with age Their origin is unknown - Utah Cattlemen’s Association President Gary Rose who ranches at Pleasant Valley in northwest Utah said he found machine gun shells in a grove of cedar trees on his property in the fall of 979 He found them about 6 crashed in the area 30 days after an killing two airmen Rose said his son Greg was running a combine when the l 6 flew over "They fie w right over the top of h im and took a turn to the north" Rose said "They had been flying due west They took a turn to the north and that's where they went down" Rose said the crash site was a half mile from his son The machine gun shells found in the grove were fired from the jet moments before it crashed Rose believes "They definitely were" he said "Greg pretty well saw the deer run out of the cedars You can never be positive but the deer ran over to where he was combining and 'normally they won’t do that" Rose said his son shut off the combine and jumped off of it in fear of being hit by the jet “At that time" Rose said "he looked over there and all he saw was a big ball of fire The rest of us saw it too We were the first ones there” Rose said the pilot was a "hotdogger" a term used by Air Force officials who came to the scene “Some of the guys who came out from Hill Field we got to talking to them” Rose said "They got almost human They said it's a wonder this thing hadn't gone down before because hated to fly with this (the hotdogger he was such a crazy charac- Distribution of live bombs per per 49 Distribution of duds per acre: 30 per Total distribution of unexploded bombs per acre: 1 per 19 — Amount of ordnance scrap metal per year 41 123 pounds Number of rounds of ammunition per year 938 - Number of live bombs per year 46 - Number of duds per year 74 Total number of unexploded bombs per year 120 distribution in area Naturady and time was not even The number of undiscovered munitions was not accounted for in the figures The “92 percent" figure was not entered into the equation assuming the undiscovered proportion would duplicate the discovered numbers “We have done all that is possible to protect our neighbors" the article quoted CapL Rex Rackowitz Fallon “But rememNAS Commander ber" he continued “in some 48 years of military bombing operations in Churchill County no one has ordbeen harmed by acre: nance" Yet by Kca Rand The wife and three daughters of the visited the crash site Rose said He said they confirmed that they were aware of the hotdogger through letters they had received Carl Jarett of Nephi a painter at the Intermountain Power Plant said he found an uncxploded bomb about 20 years ago near the Fish Springs Mountains Jarett said he found the bomb while riding a horse on the east slope of the range about seven to 10 miles south of the wildlife refuge "about a third of the way up north of Sand Pass" he said He said the bomb protruded from the - See AMMO Page 2 AF tape available A videotape recording was made of the “Airspace Blues Tour" presentation made at the Delta High School auditorium Friday Jan 5 The tour sponsored by presented three Nevadans who have an expertise in military activity in that state Their common experiences and knowledge were applied in presenting a case in opposition to an electronic battlefield the Air Force wants to build in the West Desert Similar presentations were made by the group in Partoun and in Salt Lake City The tape of the Delta presentation was made by the Millard County Chronicle Progress for use by those who wanted to attend the event but were unable to do so It my be borrowed by anyone who wants to see it Contact the newspaper office at for details IMAGO The Theatre Mask Ensemble Cyndi Johnson with Jared Ben Johnson First baby of ’90 from Sutherland The first baby bom in Millard County in 1990 arrived at the Delta Community Medical Center at 4:35 am Monday Jan 8 Jared Ben Johnson son of Ben and Cyndi Johnson of Sutherland was 8 lb 8 oz 21 inches long Jared has two older brothers and Travis is Kurt old is are Howard and Grandparents Gene and Clara Glenda Johnson Osgulhorpe of Sutherland Arlene and Ted Caldwell of Delta and Don O’ Hem of Lake Linden Michigan Delta Fillmore to get restrooms Federal funding is available to the cities of Delta and Fillmore for use in and maintaining public building restroom facilities in the city parks Millard County Commissioner Mike Styler told the Delta City Council Monday Jan 8 that the facilities are possible through Community Development Block Grant money A similar discussion was held with the Fillmore city council earlier Like Delta that group approved making a request for CDBG money for the facilities CDBG money is provided to states from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development State governments distribute the money to local entities based on population "So much is available to each county" Styler said There is now “probably in the neighborhood of $200000" in locally available CDBG funding Styler said which is in the county’s revolving loan fund That money is generally used “to help new businesses get off the ground" he said But “there are some needs in a couple of cities" he said referring to the restrooms Styler said the county has requested a $65000 CDBG grant to meet those needs He said the facilities would cost about $32000 to $36000 “Hopefully that would be adequate” he said Up to 0 percent of the money can be used to administer the facilities “There is a lot of red tape" he said “That you should know up front This is an available offer if you’d like us to pursue it" Despite the "meticulous record keeping required" both Fillmore and Delta city councils said they wanted the facilities Styler said a public hearing on the CDBG request would be scheduled for T uesday Jan 6 at the regular commission meeting in Fillmore AF project impact report out soon The Draft Environmental Impact Statement on the electronic battlefield the Air Force proposes to build in the West Desert is due to be released soon Dick Hector director of the Electronic Combat Test Capability (ECTQ project said he cannot announce an exact date the DEIS will be available "They’re going through final graphics in the print” he said “and the thing could slide a week because of the printers or something” Hector said the public review process starts when the document is formally filed with the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington DC It must be filed on a Monday for publication in the Federal Register on the following Friday "So if you missed the Monday you slide into another week” he said “We’re looking toward the end of the month” Lt Col Tom Bartol said l stationed at Norton Air Force Base in California is responsible for preparing the DS Hector said publication to distribution "should all happen within a week’s time" The National Environmental Policy Act passed in 969 provides for re view of the consequences cm the environment of major federal actions The impact statement on the ECTC is being done in compliance with NEPA Several different resource categories are examined in depth in preparing any EIS They include things like air qualland ity water quality use and other categories At a meeting in Delta last year members of the Utah Farm Bureau noted grazing was not among the categories normally examined in fireparing an EIS "They asked to elevate that issue to a major category" Bartol said “and we did that" The distribution process is Hector said “That is it goes to congressional members first then it goes out to governors and state officials and then others" he said "But that all should happen within the same few days" The Delta City Library and the Fillmore City Library will both have two copies each of the DEIS Other libraries around the state will also have the document A public comment penod follows the DEIS release "The minimum is 45 we’re going to do a period Bartol said Public hearing will be held probably in early March “It is my understanding that they would like to give somewhere around three or four weeks for the public to consume the document before having "It Hector said public hearings" doesn't make sense to have public hearings a week after everybody gets the " thing 2 DEIS See Page Presented by the West Millard Cultural Council See Story Inside |