"The noise gets worse all the time," he added. "The quality of life is deteriorating and an increase in the target practice is an unacceptable burden to people who already suffer enough. The ground water is already contaminated. We're fed up with it."
The American army, which has 70,000 soldiers stationed in Germany, wants to increase the size of the forces at the vast Grafenwoehr combat training grounds from about 3,500 to 5,500 troops, and build 1,900 new apartments for the combat forces.
The blueprints also call for felling 80 hectares (200 acres) of adjacent forest for the G.I. settlement known as "New Town" in a region the government had designated a nature reserve - drawing more protests from environmentalists.
