Coast Guard discusses live fire exercise plans at Duluth hearing

Map of proposed training zones
The Coast Guard has proposed seven permanent training zones on Lake Superior, outlined in yellow dots above. The blue dots mark the five-mile distance from the U.S. shore and Canadian border.
Map courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard

(AP) - A forum on the Coast Guard's plans for conducting live-fire training exercises on Lake Superior drew about as many supporters as opponents Monday evening.

While no speaker questioned whether the U.S. Coast Guard needs mounted machine guns on its Great Lakes vessels, several wondered if live-fire training on the lakes was worth the potential risks to the environment and wayward boaters.

But others gave their support to the Coast Guard, which says it needs to conduct the training as part of the war on terrorism.

Coast Guard training exercise
A Coast Guard vessel conducted live-fire training exercises on Lake Erie, August 16, 2006.
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard

"Anyone who says they support the Coast Guard but not this, are not telling you the truth," veterans activist Durbin Keeney of Duluth said.

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The Coast Guard wants to establish 34 permanent live-fire training zones across the Great Lakes. On Lake Superior, the critical training would be conducted five miles into the lake in roughly 300 feet of water off of Grand Marais and Two Harbors in Minnesota and Bayfield, Wis., Rear Adm. John Crowley Jr. told the Duluth News Tribune on Monday.

Only about 50 people attended the hearing, the first several the Coast Guard has scheduled in Great Lakes states during a public comment period that expires Nov. 13.

But those president included mayors and tribal leaders, charter fishing guides, recreational boaters, military support groups and the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce.

Some critics proposed using bullets that don't contain lead, and practicing in the winter months in simulators or in boats off the coast of Florida.

U.S. Rep. Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., arranged the hearings after the Coast Guard began exercises this summer with little public notice. Coast Guard officials apologized for the misunderstanding.

Oberstar endorsed the Coast Guard's plan Monday, but asked for public notification that would go beyond marine radio broadcasts, such as alerting the news media and holding more public meetings.

I don't think dumping lead into Lake Superior is something we need to be doing.

Each of the proposed live-fire zones would be closed to the public only during the drills and watched over by radar and eyes on the water. An area's closing should total only about 24 hours a year, Coast Guard officials said. The zones avoid shipping lanes, most recreational fishing areas and community water intake pipes.

Coast Guard personnel would fire up to 430,000 bullets each year in the training zones, The Muskegon Chronicle reported Monday.

Because the bullets are largely made from lead and copper, the training exercises would deposit as much as 6,900 pounds of lead and 2,800 pounds of copper each year in the lakes, according to a health-risk assessment that the Coast Guard commissioned.

"That's more lead than the entire state of Michigan and all of its industries and pollution sources emit to surface waters every year," said Hugh McDiarmid Jr., a spokesman for the Michigan Environmental Council.

The health-risk assessment, prepared by CH2M Hill Cos. Ltd., an Englewood, Colo.-based engineering and construction firm, concluded that sending hundreds of thousands of lead and copper bullets into the Great Lakes would not pollute the lakes or poison aquatic life.

Furthermore, the weapons training would "result in no elevated risks for the Great Lakes," according to the study.

Ingesting lead can cause brain damage, reproductive problems and cancer in humans, according to the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

Rick Rediske, a scientist at Grand Valley State University's Annis Water Resources Institute, said the bullets would pose little threat to the Great Lakes ecosystem because lead does not easily dissolve in fresh water.

James Maughan, one of the analysts who conducted the study, concluded the exercises would have no major impact.

He predicted that over five years the lead would raise the risk level of contamination to humans, fish and sediment by 10 percent to 20 percent in heavily used areas.

But Duluth Mayor Herb Bergson asked for more long-term analysis and another study that uses real lake water instead of cleaned water.

"What if this is the action that puts the lake water over the edge?" asked Bergson, a member of the Great Lakes Mayors Initiative.

Red Cliff Tribal Chairwoman Patricia DePerry was among several speakers who noted that the lake has been used as a munitions dumping ground starting after World War I.

"I don't think dumping lead into Lake Superior is something we need to be doing," said longtime Lake Superior activist Bob Brown.

Bayfield Mayor Larry MacDonald said many citizens have contacted him with concerns about the environmental and safety issues.

But Andy Peterson of the Duluth Area Chamber of Commerce said the training is needed in order to "protect our port and protect our way of life."

And Dexter Nelson, president of the Duluth Charter Captain Association, said his group fully supports the plan. Nelson said recreational anglers drop as much lead in the lake every summer, between lost sinkers and other gear, as the Coast Guard would.

(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)