[CPEO-MEF] Yuba site for homes, golf sits atop WWII explosives

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California
Yuba site for homes, golf sits atop WWII explosives
By Chris Bowman -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PST Wednesday, December 4, 2002

Yuba County is considering putting more than 5,000 homes and a golf 
course atop a World War II-era combat range still laden with explosives, 
a prospect state environmental officials call highly risky.

The proposed Yuba Highlands development just east of Marysville would 
lie almost entirely within live-firing zones of the former Camp Beale, 
an Army training ground through the Korean War.

County officials said they approved a plan to develop the area 10 years 
ago with nary a warning from the Department of Defense. The site is 
believed to be a virtual minefield of unexploded bombs, rockets, 
grenades, mortar rounds and, possibly, chemical warfare agents.

Now, as county officials weigh whether to approve the first housing 
tract for this newly designated growth zone, the California 
Environmental Protection Agency is waving a red flag.

"If OE (ordnance and explosives) is mishandled or if appropriate 
safeguards are not in place, there is a potential for tragic results to 
occur," Cal-EPA official Ed Walker warned in a Nov. 13 letter to the 
county's planning department.

The Army recovered 500 potentially explosive munitions before returning 
63,000 acres to civilian use in 1959. But the sweeps did not include 
buried ammo, according to U.S. Army Corps of Engineers documents. The 
military did not have the technology at that time to detect buried 
ordnance.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/5460298p-6444728c.html

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