Clark County’s efforts to address contaminated groundwater at Camp Bonneville are getting a boost from the U.S. Army.
On Tuesday, the county council approved a contract amendment to accept $6 million in additional funding from the Army for site cleanup. The amendment also extends the county’s contract with the Army to 2054.
Councilor Matt Little, one of two new councilors sworn in prior to the start of Tuesday’s meeting, suggested moving the discussion out two weeks to provide more time to review the contract changes and provide feedback.
“It’s great that we’re going to have some money for monitoring and remediation. The big question mark I had here is that it changes … the end date, which would have been July 2026 to September 2054. That’s almost 30 years,” Little said during the meeting.
Established in 1909, Camp Bonneville was created for military training. Troops stationed at Fort Vancouver used the site as a drill field and rifle range. A shooting range used by law enforcement agencies, including the Clark County Sheriff’s Office and FBI, 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.
Using millions of dollars in grant funding from the Army, the county undertook efforts to clear the property of unexploded ordinance, explosive compounds, munitions and lead, as well as clean up soil and groundwater contaminants.
In an October presentation to the county council, Kevin Tyler, manager for the county’s parks and lands division, said four of the five contamination areas, called Remedial Action Units or RAUs, have been cleared.
Tyler said there would be other opportunities for public engagement as the cleanup process moves forward.
“We’re in the process of developing the remedial investigation and feasibility study. It’s a study of what are the alternatives that could be used to clean up the remaining contamination at Camp Bonneville. When that feasibility study is done, there will be a cleanup action plan,” Tyler said, adding the state Department of Ecology would oversee the cleanup process and host public meetings to solicit feedback.
Tyler said the amendment, the 17th since the county signed the original contract in 2006, also makes changes to some of the technical specifications for cleanup of landfill No. 4, demolition area No. 1, as well as groundwater contaminants.
Little later withdrew his motion to delay the vote, and the council unanimously approved the contract amendment.
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