Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 3, 2011)
<ri?* jtìortlnnò (Obstruer Page 6 August 3. 2011 Military Wasteland continued frontpages ter and soil. Additional demoli tion, target and rocket areas were also discovered. Though contractors removed hundreds of munitions in a sur face clearing atop the site’s C entral Valley floor, w here Lacamas Creek flows through a meadow, over $20 million in clean-up costs remain. Deeply buried munitions still lurk 2 inches to 14 inches or lower below the surface. Land fills and lead-contaminated soils are among other areas o f con tamination. Only two of the five “Remedial Action Units” of con- ta m in a ted areas have been cleaned up. The county roughly expects clean up to last another five to seven years, while others esti mate 10 more years. New Funding for Cleanup The contracting team agreed to leave the site in 2010 and lease the property back to the county, rent-free until July 15, 2011. Today, the lease has been extended until Aug. 15, allowing the county to pursue more fund ing from the Army. The Army is expected to pro vide funds to continue clean up. “We have been making slow, gradual progress toward a fund ing agreement,” said Jeff Mize, public information manager for Clark County Public Works. In the end, he says “It’s the Arm y’s responsibility to clean up the property.” Previously, the Army criticized prime contractor, Mike Gage, for what they considered to be inappropriate use of funds in cluding lavish entertainment and travel expenses, and refused to offer any more resources. “If we had a perfect under standing of what was on the site 10 years ago, we might be fur ther along,” said Mize. up failures if the Army and state did not refuse help from the U.S. E n v iro n m e n ta l P ro te c tio n Agency, who withdrew from the project in 2003 after 7 years of involvement. In a letter to the Army, the EPA stated their official with drawal from Camp Bonneville’s closure team, citing that there were “significant data gaps and procedural shortfalls at Camp Bonneville” as a result of the Army ’ s “lack of cooperation and collaboration.” O th er co n cern s the EPA stated were; the A rm y’s incom plete and faulty description of the site’s contaminants, a lack of information about property trans fers, and a limited understanding about the extent of contamina tion from munitions, unexploded ordinances, and areas of chemi cal releases. With extensive contamination remaining in 2009, Bertish peti tioned for the EPA’s return and requested new site assessments with consideration that the prop erty be placed on the National Priorities Superfund List. Military ordnance from a training base east o f Vancouver still at risk exploding. left footing the Arm y’s mess, Bertish hopes the EPA’s involve ment will be the leverage to find funding and clean up Camp Bonneville in a proper and timely manner. Bombs an “acceptable risk? While county officials explain Possible unexploded military munitions make Camp Bonneville a public danger. The petition won, and the EPA began conducting a site investi gation May 2011 in Phase 1, collecting groundwater, soil, and EPA Warnings Disregarded Lacamus Creek samples. The Dvija Michael Bertish, a local results are still under review, environmentalist and member of and Phase 2 sampling begins this the Rosem ere N eighborhood month. Association, said the County may W orried the county may be have prevented the current clean involved in legal conundrum and that bombs on the site is an “acceptable risk" for a public park, some public citizens argue the opposite. Jerry Barnett, the county’s project manager for Camp Bonneville said, “It would be a different sort of park than what we are used to.” He explains that two-thirds of the property will remain a wild- life refuge, while the public park mational cartoon booklet called will be divided among two areas. Larry the Lizard on the Lookout The most intense public use area for parents with children “who for tent camping and unrestricted may find remnants of unexploded use will be on the lower Valley ordinance while playing or ex floor, where “subsurface clear ploring in the area” of the future ing” will have been completed, public park. while a more restricted area on With drawings and colorful the Western Slopes will limit hik photos, the book tells kids, “If ers to trails and roads, away there’s metal on the ground, tell from potentially dangerous ar someone what you found,” and eas. “If glass or wire is what you see, Areas heavily impacted with tell someone quick and let it be.” fired artillery will be off limits to the public and protected by 5- A history of assault strand barbed wire fences, he on the land said. A ndofcourse, no park will From 1909 to 1995, under the exist until Camp Bonneville is ownership of U.S. Army, the cleaned up according to plan. forested property was used by “Even after cleanup is com various branches of the military plete, bombs will remain on site as artillery ranges for pistols, in perpetuity, said Bertish, stat rifles, machine guns, howitzers, ing that unexploded munitions live hand g ren ad e s, ro ck et may be buried deeper than sub launchers, mortar training shells, surface clearing. “This is not an and a list of other military weap appropriate risk to have a public onry. park adjacent to bombs on the Investigations in 1995 con site.” cluded over 20 areas of concern Barry Rogowski, a manager for restoration including four with Washington State’s depart landfills, three grease pits, drum ment of Ecology, said “Park burials, paint and solvent burials, rangers trained in m unitions bum pits, maintenance pits, pes safety and identification will ticide mixing storage buildings, a make sure public safety is taken former sewage pond, and more. care of,” along with “ongoing Among the chemical warfare safeguards, public education and service activities on the site were notification, and institutional con three ammunition bunkers, two trols (such as nodigging) to mini gas chambers, a mustard-train mize any risk to the public. ing area, tear gas capsules, smoke The Army released an infor pots, land mines, etc.