True Sustainability doesn't include expanding PCMS

The economy of Southeastern Colorado has always been land and water based. To remain viable and maintain a strong economic base requires uses that compliment and are compatible with those primary economic drivers for the entire region – land and water.

Peaks in the energy cycle drove times of great prosperity in Walsenburg, Trinidad, and Pueblo with coal at the turn of the century and gas more recently. And the Arkansas river and lands adjacent to it have driven the economies from Canyon City to Pueblo to La Junta, Lamar and East to Kansas.

Agriculture is and has always provided the sustainable economic baseline between energy cycles and has been the primary impetus for all businesses in the region that rely upon it. Agriculture is the glue that holds the entire region together and trying to ‘replace’ that economy with a transient one that is not compatible or supportive of the other segments of that economy can only spell disaster for the entire region and ultimately the state.

Southeast Colorado has both land and water and they are the basic factors paramount to the existing agricultural production and regional economy. However, there are also other potentially significant and yet compatible economic factors that we must understand are at risk from an expansion of Pinon Canyon maneuver site.

Expanding Pinon Canyon threatens the great potential that exists for energy production that co exist with agriculture and add to the current economic base. High energy costs will drive future gas production and may reopen opportunities for a coal economy. Wind and solar will provide addition jobs and create significant economic stimulus.

Jobs in Colorado’s clean energy economy grew more than twice as fast as overall jobs between 1998 and 2007, according to the Pew Charitable Trust. Witness the wind turbine factory under construction in Pueblo. Why would we risk losing that?

Specific costs associated with even a 100,000 acre expansion of PCMS would cost the communities of Southeastern Colorado $27 million to $76 million annually according to economic data compiled by Marilyn Musgrave and John Salazar. This includes tourism revenue, hunting revenue, cattle sales, agricultural salaries, and hay sales. Wind development on 100,000 acres would generate an additional $25 to $35 million annually. Gas fields east of I-25 also become a reality as energy prices rise.

The Army estimates PCMS expansion will bring $5 million in salary and $4 million in maintenance costs annually to the local economy. Considering their track record of promises that change as often as their leadership changes we don’t believe that is a good trade.

People will always eat; agriculture will remain a stable economic platform as food security becomes a priority in an unstable world. Agriculture also maintains a beautiful and healthy landscape that will draw people and industry as the northern front-range grows. PCEOC is intent on putting every effort into stopping the unnecessary expansion of a little used maneuver site thus assuring that our agriculture base is sustained and compatible uses are promoted and perpetuated.