Pinon Canyon expansion opponents outline arguments

Opponents of a plan to expand the Army's Pinon Canyon training site contend the Army hasn't fully considered the environmental impacts of increasing training there. Not 1 More Acre! and others suing the Army outlined their arguments in an opening brief filed in U.S. District Court in Denver last week. The group and other plaintiffs filed a lawsuit in April asking a judge to make sure the Army complies with the National Environmental Policy Act before making changes at the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site. The plaintiffs contend the Army violated the act by failing to fully consider reasonable alternatives to its plan to increase the frequency, duration and intensity of training at Pinon Canyon in southeastern Colorado, such as holding training elsewhere. It also contends the Army didn't include proposals to physically expand the training site when it wrote an environmental impact statement on the effects of increasing training....