Keeping People off the Range

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

KEEPING PEOPLE OFF THE RANGE

Yesterday (July 14, 1999) I toured Camp Bonneville, a closed 3,840-acre
Army training range in southern Washington state. The facility has
extensive unexploded ordnance contamination, and the Army is developing
a response plan (Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis, or EE/CA). In
addition, it recently started the second of two time-critical removal
actions.

This entire property is managed by one (maybe two) persons, who does not
have the wherewithal to keep out hikers, equestrians, and dirt bikers.
While in the long run it's debatable how much the Army should rely upon
access controls to keep people from encountering unexploded ordnance,
there's a clear need now to prevent such encounters.

At a meeting with restoration advisory board members and other neighbors
of the facility last night, we discussed this problem. One woman
suggested razor-wire fencing, but I said I as an outsider couldn't say
what would be effective in this particular community. The restoration
advisory board, the Army, and others would have to put their heads
together.

My recommendation for a site-specific accelerated response, developed
with a high level of community consultation, was immediately reinforced
by an old-timer who spoke up. He said in the Camp Bonneville forest, all
one has to do is fell a tree and that immediately provides a bridge
across any fence.

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 222B View St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/968-1126
lsiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org