Cape Cod's proposed machine gun range in the cross hairs of new EPA report

<p>The long controversial push for a proposed machine gun range on Cape Cod might be struck down by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The range would reduce the amount of time it takes soldiers at Joint Base Cape Cod to complete their training, says the Massachusetts Army National Guard — they currently have to travel hours to perform <a href="https://www.capeandislands.org/local-news/2022-12-06/big-guns-a-machine-gun-range-in-vermont-shows-what-might-be-coming-for-cape-cod" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">required small arms training</a>. But the EPA's latest report suggests local resident's drinking water could be jeopardized if the <a href="https://www.capeandislands.org/local-news/2023-04-27/epa-deals-major-blow-to-cape-machine-gun-range-report-finds-significant-danger-to-public-health" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">eight-lane, $11.5 million</a> range is built. <br> <br> "The biggest concern by far is for the Cape's water supply," said Steve Junker, managing editor of news at CAI. "It supplies water for more than 200,000 year round residents. And it's already compromised and it's compromised by this very same military base... They'll be firing more than a million bullets per year, which they feel is almost certain to further compromise that aquifer that goes under the base."<br> <br> And Rhode Island officials are texting residents in high risk areas urging them to carry Narcan — also known as naloxone — a medicine that quickly reverses an overdose. There were at least <a href="https://www.wpri.com/target-12/ri-uses-political-campaign-strategy-to-fight-overdose-epidemic/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">860 overdose deaths</a> in Rhode Island from 2021-2022, but this April, state officials sent texts offering free Narcan to residents in the Providence area, and they recieved a significant response: <br> <br> "The prior year, they had zero requests for naloxone. As soon as they sent out that text message, within a week, they get 166 requests for naloxone," Tim White, managing editor for WPRI, t