CAMP BONNEVILLE UXO

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@igc.org>]

CAMP BONNEVILLE UXO

Experience at Camp Bonneville, a little known base closure in southern
Washington state, demonstrates how serious a problem unexploded ordnance
(UXO) can be to a community attempting to plan for the reuse of former
military property. Camp Bonneville is a heavily forested, 3,840-acre
Army training base near Portland, Oregon. It was approved for closure in
1995.

In the July, 1997 ICMA BASE REUSE CONSORTIUM BULLETIN, Janice Davin, the
Local Reuse Authority (LRA) Coordinator at the city of Vancouver,
Washington, writes: 

"Because of our lack of information on contamination, we have delayed
our submission of a reuse plan until this information is available. To
date we have only a draft archive search that indicates that most, if
not all, of Camp Bonneville has the potential of UXO contamination.
Sampling, which will give us a better idea of the extent of
contamination and estimated cost of cleanup, has been delayed until this
fall. In our view, our best chance for property cleanup and transfer is
a conservative reuse plan that reduces costs by focusing development on
clean parcels. It is the opinion of LRA staff that the Army should make
early scheduling of UXO sampling a higher priority. With this
information, we can provide a much more realistic plan." 

The LRA is considering operating a civilian firing range on at least a
portion of the property.

She also points out:

"the lack of a fence is possibly a life-threatening problem. Although
all of Camp Bonneville has the potential for unexploded ordnance, and
although live grenades and a rocket have been recently found in
unexpected areas, most of the property's boundary is not fenced."

Lenny Siegel