Army vows to help fund cleanup at Bonneville

Contractors may come and go, but Clark County will have the resources necessary to turn Camp Bonneville into a park, an Army official vowed Tuesday.

The statement by the U.S. Army’s project manager comes as Clark County works to terminate the contractor hired four years ago to turn the former east county artillery range into a county park.

“The Army stands by ensuring that Clark County has the proper resources,” said Bill O’Donnell, the Army’s Virginia-based project manager for Camp Bonneville.

The cleanup stalled late last year when the main subcontractor removing unexploded ordnance pulled out after Army funding dried up. Cost overruns and funding disputes reached a stalemate between the Army and the county’s lead contractor, Bonneville Conservation Restoration and Renewal Team, headed by Mike Gage, a former deputy mayor of Los Angeles who had previously worked with the Trust for Public Land.

Citing the need for “new leadership and a fresh perspective,” the county and state Department of Ecology jointly announced last month that the county was terminating its contract with Gage.

Gage, who continues to provide site security at the compound, has not returned calls from The Columbian.

In service 86 years

The 3,840-acre site served as an Army training ground and artillery range from 1909 to 1995.

In 2006, the Army handed the property over to the county with a commitment to provide $28.6 million to clean it up. Army officials have resisted additional funding, arguing that the county signed a fixed-price contract with inherent risks. However, both Gage and the county contend that the Army’s estimate of old munitions and environmental hazards at the site turned out to be “grossly inadequate” once contractors began unearthing hundreds of potentially explosive items.

The situation fits a nationwide pattern highlighted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency more than a decade ago.

The EPA, which is currently considering a petition by Vancouver environmental activist Dvija Michael Bertish to turn the property into a federal Superfund site, walked away from Camp Bonneville in 2003 after citing the Army’s inability or unwillingness to properly investigate the extent of pollution.

EPA officials issued a memo in 1999 highlighting a pattern of problems with military base closures across the country.

“Rather than sufficiently assessing sites and making the property safe for use or transfer, the (Department of Defense) and the Services appear to be transferring the land and then waiting for others to identify problems for DoD response,” according to the memo.

The county and state environmental regulators indicated they may press the Army for a more straightforward contract based on time spent and munitions removed — rather than continuing to squabble over terms of the fixed-price contract. Army officials have raised concern about the contractors’ spending habits, which have included expensive meals, bar tabs and gift boxes.

The Army’s O’Donnell on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility of a new arrangement, although he said the Army has yet to discuss it with county officials.

“The one thing I want you to take away from this is that the Army stands by ensuring that the transfer to Clark County occurs,” O’Donnell said. “It’s important to the Army because we signed an agreement that this is what we’re going to do, and we don’t back down.”

Gage’s organization currently holds title to the site, which was to revert to Clark County upon completion of the cleanup. If the county severs its relationship with BCRRT, the county will presumably take ownership of Camp Bonneville.

“It will not come back to the Army,” O’Donnell said.

That doesn’t mean the Army won’t be held fully responsible for removing old munitions and environmental hazards, said Barry Rogowski, the project manager overseeing the cleanup for the state Department of Ecology.

The Army is on the hook no matter what, Rogowski said.

“We know who caused the problem,” he said. “They can’t just transfer their responsibility for cleanup just because they want to transfer the land.”

Erik Robinson: 360-735-4551, or erik.robinson@columbian.com.