Majority of Camp Bonneville cleanup is complete but will the property ever be suitable for public use?

Deadlines for completion have come and gone before. An update provided to the county council in 2020 estimated the groundwater contamination cleanup to be 90 percent done, with the remaining 10 percent to wrap up by early 2021.

Established in 1909, Camp Bonneville was used as a training camp for various military branches. Over its 85-year lifespan, troops stationed at Fort Vancouver would use the site as a drill field and rifle range. A shooting range used by law enforcement agencies is still in operation on the property.

The military stopped using the nearly 4,000-acre site in 1995. In 2006, the U.S. Army transferred ownership of the property to the county. Since then, with grant funding from the Army, the county undertook a major effort to clear the property of unexploded ordinance, explosive compounds, munitions and lead, as well as clean up soil and groundwater contaminants.

“Heavy metal contamination like lead does not readily dissolve in water and instead remains in the soil. Former maintenance operations and underground and above-ground storage tanks also contributed to the soil and water contamination,” Tyler told the council.

Tyler said the next step will be for PBS Engineering, a Portland firm hired to monitor the groundwater, to complete a draft feasibility study report.

“This report summarizes the contamination, past cleanup efforts, status of groundwater monitoring and evaluates options for ongoing cleanup,” Tyler said.

Once the draft report is finished, the Department of Ecology will host a public meeting to give residents an opportunity to learn more about the cleanup work and provide comment.

Next, a sitewide groundwater cleanup action plan will be drafted, which will also have a public meeting and comment period, Tyler said.

The groundwater cleanup may take several years, he said.

Periodic reviews

In August, a state auditor’s office report found the ecology department and Clark County failed to meet state requirements to conduct five-year reviews on cleanup efforts at the site.

According to Tyler, these reviews include a compilation and review of documents supporting the cleanup activities, a review of institutional controls, site inspections and a report summarizing this information. The ecology department then uses this information to finalize the periodic review and will hold a public meeting and public comment period.

“The decision was made but not documented to hold off on periodic reviews until all remedial action units were completed,” Tyler said.

Gregory Shaw, a former member of the now disbanded Camp Bonneville Community Advisory Group, said the periodic reviews should be a critical piece of the cleanup work.

“If you’re going to transition it from a restricted area into an open area, an area that the public might have access to, you have to make sure that the cleanup that you did was both effective at the time and has remained effective over time,” Shaw said.

Even after an area is cleaned up, Shaw said you can’t assume it will remain that way.

“The Department of Ecology and the Army themselves have raised the issue that, because of the amount of rain and snow and windstorms we get, munitions may well migrate to the surface, sometimes propelled by freeze-thaw cycles and sometimes just erosion or trees falling over and pulling up stuff that’s buried,” he said.

Shaw also said, based on his time serving on the advisory committee and information he’s obtained through public records requests, that even areas considered cleaned need additional work.

Tyler said the county and Department of Ecology are working cooperatively to schedule and complete the current and future periodic reviews. The current periodic review report is due from the county by Jan. 20. After that, the county will need to complete the next periodic review report within five years.

Future use

Over the years, there have been numerous suggestions about what to do with the property. Medvigy previously suggested the site could be used to provide housing to veterans. Others have suggested a behavioral health facility or housing for homeless people.

According to Tyler, developing a master plan for how the site will be used will have to wait until the cleanup activities are complete.

Shaw worries making even some of the property into a public park could put residents at risk.

“A park is an area of high human activity, especially if you’re going to have campgrounds and yurts or tents … all the kinds of things that the county proposed in the reuse plan,” he said, pointing out that 2,000 acres have not been cleared of ordnance.

Shaw said a park would have to be completely fenced in to keep visitors from wandering into more dangerous areas with unexploded munitions, and even that may not deter some visitors.

“There’s no possibility that the county will ever have the resources to fence areas off adequately because of the hodgepodge of areas that are cleaned up. There is no core area which is easily defined as usable because it’s been properly cleared,” Shaw said.