Environment
LWV of Falmouth Supports:

• Taking action on environmental issues as they affect Falmouth and the Upper Cape.
• Taking action on issues surrounding the clean-up of contaminants at the Massachusetts Military Reservation, groundwater protection, water conservation and air pollution, as well as changes which might increase pollution (groundwater, clear cuttinng and noise) at the Reservation and the Upper Cape Wate Supple Reserve.
• Ongoing monitoring of environmental issues.
• Public education.on the Climate Emergency.
• Efforts to increase energy efficiency, increase utilization of renewable energy sources and reduce the use of fossil fuels in the Town and Commonwealth.
• Efforts to reduce solid waste by recycling and composting. (Implies support for composting food waste and bans on single use plastics.)

 Rationale for edits:

LWVF and LWFMA adopted the term Climate Emergency in recent years, as a more urgent term than climate change. The next to last bullet point implies our support for the Stretch Energy Code, Green Community designation, Net Zero Carbon goals, the 2016 Paris Agreement and the Next Generation Roadmap Bill.

The proposed Machine Gun Range at the Mass. Military Reservation would be sited on the 15,000-acre Upper Cape Water Supply Reserve, an area designated by the state to serve 3 purposes:  protection of the watershed, protection of wildlife habitat, and military activities compatible with those purposes. The Gun Range would destroy 170 acres of forested land that provide critical water protection and wildlife habitat services--activities that are not compatible with machine gun training activities. The Proposed Machine Gun Range involves the use of copper ammunition (potentially toxic) in the Water Supply Reserve. There is an intent to collect and recycle the copper ammunition but no public information on how that collection will be done or how effective it might be.