Los Angeles -- The public is invited to participate in a meeting hosted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide details and solicit public comment on an upcoming ordnance study. The study will investigate whether ordnance or debris remain on property comprising what was once used as a precision bombing range during WWII by the Kirtland Air Force Base, an Air Force training installation in Albuquerque. The meeting sign-in will be from 6:30-7:00 p.m., and the meeting will begin at 7 p.m., Wednesday, November 13th, at the Hyatt Regency, 330 Tijeras Avenue in Albuquerque.

The Corps' Albuquerque District, Los Angeles District, Engineering and Support Center in Huntsville, Ala., and EOD Technology, Inc., a private contractor, are scheduled to begin the study of the approximately 15,246-acre former range area in October. The former range is located on the West Mesa surrounding the Double Eagle Airport, City of Albuquerque shooting range, sewage treatment plant, and part of the Petroglyph National Monument. The study is designed to determine the presence and extent of ordnance and explosives items remaining in the former range area, and make recommendations for future actions based on the results.
 
In the early part of WWII, the U.S. leased approximately 10,345 acres of land from the city of Albuquerque. This acreage, along with 4,790 acres transferred from the Department of Interior, was leased for building precision bombing ranges for the Kirtland Air Force Base. By 1947, the ranges were declared surplus and the lease was canceled.

Currently, the former range is still mostly empty rangeland with the city of Albuquerque operating a shooting range, a sewage treatment plant, and the Double Eagle Airport, which is a small airstrip for private planes. Also, the National Park Service, in conjunction with the state of New Mexico and the city of Albuquerque, has created the Petroglyph National Monument. Along the eastern edges of the old bombing ranges, the city of Albuquerque is expanding to encompass that property.

For more information about the meeting or the project, call at the Public Affairs Office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District, at (213) 452-3923.