[CPEO-MEF] Munitions cleanup advances

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Friday, January 10, 2003
Munitions cleanup advances
Ordnance left over from Camp Beale
Daniel Witter
Appeal-Democrat

Cleanup of unexploded ordnance in Yuba County in the former Camp Beale
area could cost up to $40 million, according to the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers.

The cost estimate was discussed with homeowners in the area Thursday.
Homeowners also got a glimpse at how much ordnance may be on their
property.

In the next year and a half, property owners who give their consent
could have the ordnance removed at the federal government's expense.

The Corps, along with the Restoration Advisory Board, displayed the
preliminary results of testing and cleanup costs on more than 60
properties that were once part of the camp's firing ranges.

The diagrams show the paths where Corps teams walked through properties
with special equipment looking for unexploded munitions such as bombs,
hand grenades and other military projectiles.

The weapons were fired when Camp Beale - a U.S. Army base that is now
present day Beale Air Force base - was nearly twice its current size and
spread into western Nevada County.

While the army cleaned up as much of the munitions on the surface as it
could, technology at the time did not detect buried ordnance and
casings, said Ted Asch, a geophysicist with the Corps.

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/archive/2003/011003/11103dlwOrdnanace.shtml

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