In Guam, an American colony in the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. military is building a massive firing range complex over the Northern Guam Lens Aquifer (NGLA) – a critical resource that provides our island community with 85% of its fresh drinking water. Up to 6.7 million lead bullets will be fired over the aquifer each year, threatening the community’s primary water source as well as surrounding ocean areas.

Available data bolsters our concern that the firing range complex poses a threat to our groundwater resources. A 2012 study by the United States Environmental Protection Agency revealed a wide range of chemical agents in soils surrounding firing ranges across the country, agents that tend to be mobilized by heavy rainfall, thereby threatening groundwater supplies. This is of particular concern in Guam, as the karst limestone topography of the NGLA is especially porous.

The firing range complex endangers the health and wellbeing of the island’s residents and also threatens the livelihoods, as well as the rights, of future generations. 

Therefore, we, the undersigned, demand an immediate halt to the construction of the firing range complex.

We call on the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services to stop construction of the firing range complex and to require an assessment of the environmental risks of the same  –  including both the impending threat of contamination of the aquifer and the future threat of diminished freshwater resources in Guam. At this time, we call on the Committee to withhold all current and future funding of the firing range complex – or any associated federal action – until strict compliance with this demand is met.

We call on the United States Secretary of Interior Deb Haaland to honor the Department of Interior’s trust responsibilities and special commitments to Guam, in particular to the native CHamoru people. Interior plays a central role in stewarding public lands, pursuing environmental justice, and honoring the federal government’s relationship with native peoples. We ask that Secretary Haaland advocate for the protection of the aquifer by directing the Bureau of Land Management to conduct additional environmental and other assessments concerning the firing range complex.

We call on Vice Speaker Tina Muna Barnes, Chairperson of the Guam Legislature’s Committee on the Guam Buildup, and on Senator Telena Nelson, Chairperson of the Guam Legislature’s Committee on Guåhan Preservation and Self-Determination, and Federal and Foreign Relations, to conduct a roundtable to assess the firing range complex and any potential adverse impacts on the environment, the aquifer, and any and all other water resources. 

Water is life. We call on all federal and local leaders to protect it.