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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- One Army database says Utah's Dugway Proving Ground has 1,192 square miles of test and training ranges, while another put it at only 456 square miles.
The Army Audit Agency found the discrepancy and identified similar conflicting information of many test ranges nationwide. The differences were attributed largely to different methods of classifying the properties.
The Deseret Morning News obtained the report through a Freedom of Information Act request and reported it in a copyright story Monday.
In response to the request, Dugway officials also officially said for the first time why they are seeking to expand the base's boundaries. They want to stop people, such as UFO-watchers who think Dugway is the "new Area 51," from spying on official activities from nearby mountains.
The Army previously had refused to comment officially on its reasons.
Inspectors wrote in the new report that there was a 9,062 square mile discrepancy between two Army databases that sought to track how much range land the Army has.
Dugway Proving Ground's discrepancy -- which amounted to more than 471,000 acres -- was fourth largest discrepancy among the national bases assessed and accounted for 8 percent of the total.
Army-used ranges that had bigger differences were White Sands Missile Range, N.M., at 3.3 million acres, San Juan National Forest, Colo., at 634,562 acres and Fort Greely, Alaska, 631,556 acres.
Dugway officials said most of the reason for differences stems from the two databases examining somewhat different things.
It said that one, called the Range Property Inventory, looks at "current active and usable ranges on the installation." It had the smaller number for Dugway.
The other, called the Army Range Inventory Database, was developed by a contractor nationally as part of a process "to document all areas that had the potential of munition contamination any time during the history of the installation." It listed the larger number for Dugway at 1,192 square miles.
Dugway's response to the ARID calculation said, "Many times the same area is counted many times as it was used for different types of tests. There were also some differences between the two databases in determining what was buffer zone and what was range."
Dugway is where the military historically tested many of its defenses against chemical, biological and radiological warfare, as well as many of its new weapon systems. It has also been used for troop training and maneuvers.
The Army Audit Agency said that such differences in definition also accounted for discrepancies at many of the other ranges. It said the ARID database included some lands not owned by the military that were available for test and training under various agreements, and ARID sometimes had better acreage counts because it used satellite geographical information the other database did not have.
Dugway's response to the News said it currently has "sufficient land to accommodate current testing and training operations. There is some feeling that in the event a troop unit is assigned to Dugway, more land may be required."
However, it said that is not why the base has been lobbying to expand its southern boundary.
Some feel it would be in the government's best interest to restrict ongoing monitoring by nonmilitary persons of sensitive training and testing by restricting access to higher ground around the installation that has been used by observers in the past, the response said.
Dugway previously had not officially said why it has been seeking that expansion and denied requests for documents that discussed it.
However, aides to Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, previously said the Army had told the congressman, who is looking at legislation to expand the base, that officials were worried about people watching the base from nearby mountains.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
