GaLLeRy 2008 - Peace camp land today

The land that housed the peace camp was sold for back taxes in 2006. The front porch and back of the house has since been torn down, the garage, which collapsed of its own accord, has been hauled away and the barn has been re-slatted. The pavilion is still standing while the summer kitchen and boardwalk are steadily returning to the earth. Some of the peace camp graffiti on the house, garden shed and original outhouse is still visible.
Photographs by Jesse Doe

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NEWSPAPER 2008 - Soldiers to practice at depot

SOLDIERS TO PRACTICE AT DEPOT
Government to lease training space
By John Stith

Syracuse Post Standard
Saturday, June 07, 2008
Newsclipping provided by Nancy Keefe Rhodes

The U.S. Army, which eight years ago pulled out of the former Seneca Army Depot in Romulus, is back. In the most recent proposal for new activity at the depot, the Army will bring in groups of 400 to 1,500 soldiers - roughly company-size to brigade-size units - to the depot two to six times a year for training.

Fort Drum, with 107,265 acres, uses about 50,000 acres for training and needed more space, said Col. John Penree, senior planning and operations officer at Fort Drum. Penree said the base is used not only by members of the 10th Mountain Division, based at Fort Drum, but also by National Guard units from across the Northeast."It gets very busy here in the summer," he said.

Penree said state officials contacted the Army in October 2004 about using the depot for training. Fort Drum officials and the Seneca County Economic Development Corp., which oversees redevelopment of the depot, are finalizing a lease agreement. County development officials did not respond to requests for comment.

An environmental assessment prepared by the Army calls for a five-year lease, renewable for five years, to use 3,000 acres of the 10,600-acre depot. The areas include the airfield, a large portion of the bunker area and warehouse space. Penree said there is no cost to the Army to lease the land, but the Army will share maintenance costs and will repair any damage caused by the training operations. Only wheeled vehicles will be used at the depot. No heavy equipment or tracked vehicles will be used, he said.

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Seneca's 25th Anniversary Celebration!

What better way to mark the 25th anniversary of the Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace and Justice than by joining thousands of women in a 4-day gathering for peace at the White House?



We urge all feminists, activists and artists to heed this call from Eli Painted Crow, a 22-year Army Veteran who served in Iraq in 2004. She is a Native American from the Yaqui Nation. This is her vision:

"A gathering of women, the grandmothers, mothers and the daughters of all. To see our sisters, our friends and lovers who are ready to start something great. It is about you; it is about me, together it is "we." Imagine how powerful this can be, listening to our heartbeats growing strong. A heartbeat that is a stand for peace. We, the Turtle Women are rising, rising to help our mother, rising to witness her cries for the loss of lives. We, the Turtle Women are rising, rising to speak through our hearts, through the beat of the drum that connects all life for all time. We are Turtle Women rising, rising for peace."

Check out her web page: turtlewomenrising.org and make plans to join your peace camp sisters, October 10-13, 2008 in D.C. We're organizing rides. Let us know you're coming.

"We're gonna rise with the fires of freedom.
Truth is the fire that will break our chains.
We're gonna stop the fires of destruction.
Healing is the fire running through our veins."

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GaLLeRy 1983 - Hazel Brampton

OPENING DAY, July 4, 1983
Photographs by Hazel Brampton






























NAGASAKI DAY August 6, 1984

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NEWSPAPER 1985 - Seneca Makes N.Y. No. 2 in Nukes

SENECA MAKES N.Y. NO. 2 IN NUKES
by Jack Anderson

Syracuse Post-Standard June 14, 1985
Newsclipping provided by Jane Begley


In the 40 years since the first atomic bomb exploded, the world has rushed headlong down the path of nuclear proliferation. So far, the possession of nuclear weapons by five major powers has acted as a successful deterrent.

But the possibility is growing that the nuclear arsenal is getting out of control. Familiarity seems to have bred contempt for the consequences of a nuclear exchange; officials in Washington – and presumably in the other nuclear-power capitals – are thinking what was once called the unthinkable.

Consider the testimony of a top Strategic Air Command general at a closed session of the Senate Armed Services Committee. According to the transcript, he made the obligatory bow to “the complex interaction of many elements” that add up to deterrence, but then said ominously; “However, should deterrence fail between strategic nuclear powers, all but one of these factors become irrelevant, and we must then look to the ultimate measure of merit: raw military power.”

The general proceeded to plead the case for deploying more nuclear warheads in this country and abroad.


We doubt that even the experts of the Strategic Air Command, let alone President Reagan and his advisors have a clear idea of just how extensive the nuclear arsenal has become. A fresh picture is presented in a new book, “Nuclear Battlefields: Global Links in the Arms Race,” by William Arkin and Richard Fieldhouse.

With a minimum of rhetoric and a maximum of mind-numbing facts and figures, the book lists every nuclear warhead in every facility related to the production and deployment of nuclear weapons.

The greatest shock for most Americans will be the discovery that there are nuclear warheads practically in their back yards. Only 22 states and the District of Columbia have no nuclear warheads within their borders. The greatest contiguous warhead-free zone is a roughly Y-shaped, 15-state cordon sanitaire stretching from the Atlantic Ocean (Deleware and Maryland) to the Mississippi River, north to the Canadian border (Minnesota) and south to the Gulf of Mexico (Alabama and Mississippi).

There also is a chart that ranks the states by the number of warheads and also by nuclear facilities. Surprisingly, the two states with the most nuclear weapons are on the eastern seaboard, not the Great Plains where the intercontinental ballistic missiles are deployed.

South Carolina heads the list with 1,962 warheads. The Navy weapons stations at Charleston stores 1,482 warheads, mostly as spares for submarines being overhauled. Three subs berthed there account for the remaining 480.

Second is New York, with 1,900 warheads, most of which are at Seneca Army Depot in the Finger Lakes region. A secret Pentagon report we have obtained discloses that the Army has been stockpiling warheads for neutron bombs there since 1981. These and other warheads were made from nuclear material recovered from 1,200 “retired” 8-inch artillery shells, which yielded about 78 tons of highly enriched uranium or alloys.

The rest of the Top 10 and the number of nuclear warheads in each are North Dakota (1,510); California (1,437); Washington state (1,172); Michigan and Texas (630 each); Virginia (542); Louisiana (530); and Arkansas (430).

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Seneca Army Depot Fact Sheet

Pamphlet distributed by the Finger Lakes Peace Alliance - Geneva, NY ca. 1983

What is the Seneca Army Depot?

The Seneca Army Depot (SEAD) is one of several facilities used to store nuclear weapons for the Department of Defense. It is located on 11,000 acres of rural land in upstate New York and is operated by the U.S. Army. The earliest known use of SEAD for nuclear weapons-related work was in 1944 when uranium was stored at the depot for the Manhattan Project (the government project which developed the first atomic bomb). Eleven of the storage bunkers used were found to be radioactive n 1980. These bunkers have since been sealed off.


In 1957 the Seneca Army Depot began storing tactical (short range) nuclear weapons and in 1961 began distributing “special weapons” items and repair parts both here and overseas. Nuclear weapons are routinely referred to as “special weapons” in Department of Defense documents.

Evidence that SEAD is a Nuclear Storage Facility

It is the policy of the Department of Defense (DOD) neither to confirm nor deny the presence of nuclear weapons at a particular location. However, evidence shows that SEAD is a major nuclear weapons facility and is the on East Coast “transshipment point” receiving nuclear weapons from the Department of Energy (DOE), the manufacturer of the weapons, for eventual deployment in Europe.
Evidence includes:

Seneca Army Depot has a storage area essential for the housing on nuclear weapons. It consists of 60 to 70 reinforced earth-covered bunkers as well as a 28,000 square foot earth-covered, temperature controlled building essential for plutonium maintenance. (Plutonium is the explosive element common to most nuclear weapons.)

This nuclear storage area is guarded by 200 to 250 military police who are authorized to use deadly force in order to prevent intruders from approaching the bunkers. These police officers have received anti-terrorist training. The 1982 military construction hearing included a request to increase the number of military police at SEAD.

Included in a 1967 SEAD employees’ handbook is a list of four “occupational skills”: “nuclear weapons officer,” “nuclear weapons assembly technician,” “nuclear weapons maintenance technician,” and “nuclear weapons electronics specialist.”

A 1975 technical manual includes SEAD in a list of “military first destinations” for the receipt of nuclear weapons and ‘limited life components” (this refers to tritium, an element used to trigger nuclear warheads).

A July 1980 DOD/DOE planning document identifies SEAD as the East Coast transshipment point for nuclear munitions.

Economic Impact of SEAD and Jobs

The Seneca Army Depot’s 1982-1983 operating budget exceeds 30 million dollars. Over 80 percent goes to pay the wages of civilian and military personnel.

The depot provides nearly 1,400 jobs; 800 of the jobs are held by civilians while the remaining 600 jobs require a high level of skill or security clearance and are filled by persons who are brought to the depot form outside the Finger Lakes region. Many of the low skills jobs are filled by family members of military personnel stationed at the depot. The end result of this employment situation is that only a small percentage of all the jobs at the depot are open to local people.

The Tax Impact of SEAD

SEAD is a federal facility and therefore pays no sales or property-related taxes. The depot occupies about 4% of Seneca County’s land area. The depot’s land and buildings are reported to have an assessed value of $250 million and could be paying over $8,000,000 per year in property-related taxes in Seneca County. A private enterprise would also be paying millions of dollars in sales taxes on the material it would be buying for its operations. The depot has within its boundaries a department store, restaurant, two bars, a luncheonette, a grocery store, liquor store, bowling alley and gas station. These nine enterprises are included in the depot’s property tax assessment of over $250 million and are for the use of military personnel and their families. Sales made in these businesses are not subject to sales taxes.

Less than 1% of the military personnel at the depot own homes in the community and pay any property-related taxes. 67% of the military personnel and their families live on the depot in military housing. These person do not contribute rent or sales tax revenues from utility bills to the local economy.

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