Illinois residents to testify against Coast Guard Plans for Great Lakes Shooting Range

Begin forwarded message:

From: Marcia Bernsten
Date: October 31, 2006 2:48:03 PM PST
To: [undisclosed recipient]
Cc: chicago-peace@list.chicagopeace.info
Subject: Illinois residents to testify against Coast Guard Plans

********For Immediate Release********


Media Advisory for Contact: Marcia
Bernsten 847.912.0739

Wednesday, November 1, 2006
marcia@CitizensforLakeSafety.org


or Lee Goodman 847.559.9525


lee@CitizensforLakeSafety.org




Illinois residents to testify against Coast Guard Plans

for Great Lakes Shooting Range

Coast Guard Hearing in Waukegan to serve as forum
for growing environmental concerns.

The United States Coast Guard has announced plans to turn the Great
Lakes, the world's largest body of fresh water, into the world's
largest freshwater shooting range. Since 1817, a treaty between the
U.S. and Canada prohibited this kind of activity on the Great Lakes.

The Coast Guard has installed machine guns, capable of firing 600
rounds per minute, on its Great Lakes vessels and has begun target
practice on the lakes. Now the Coast Guard wants to designate 34
areas in the lakes as permanent target ranges for practice with live
ammunition. The areas they have mapped out come within five miles of
the shore and can be seen with the naked eye from the water's edge.
They are strung around the perimeter of all five Great Lakes (Lake
Michigan, Lake Superior, Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, and Lake Huron). In
keeping with the Bush administration's practice of giving misleading
names to its initiatives, the Coast Guard is calling the target
ranges "safety zones."

The so called "safety zones" cut through areas routinely used by
commercial and recreational fishing vessels, power boats, sailboats,
kayaks and other marine craft throughout the Great Lakes.

Environmentalists dispute of the Coast Guard's claims that dumping
an estimated 430,000 lead bullets into the lakes each year will have
no adverse environmental impact on fish, birds, mammals, plants, or
humans. Consistent with the military's view that they should be
exempt from environmental regulations, the Coast Guard has not
prepared a complete environmental impact statement.

What: Chicago/Milwaukee Hearing on Coast Guard Plan to do live-
fire machine gun target practice on Great Lakes using ordnance
containing lead and other toxic substances.
Who: Citizens of Illinois and Wisconsin, environmental
groups, groups opposed to militarization of the lakes, local
government representatives.

When: Wednesday, November 1, 2006

4pm, Open House

5:30pm, Testimony by residents, officials, etc.

Where: Waukegan, Illinois: Genessee Theater, 203 North Genessee St.





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