Clark County commissioners remain correctly focused on a simple concept: Whoever made the mess at Camp Bonneville needs to clean it up. That would be the Army, which for eight decades used the 3,840-acre site in east county as an artillery range and training area. A dangerous mix of munitions remains buried on the grounds.
If only the cleanup were as simple as the concept. County leaders have been unable to convince Army officials that it’s long past time to agree on a new cleanup contract. This week the county commissioners got a little tougher; they gave recalcitrant Army officials a July 14 deadline to commit to continue funding the cleanup. “The negotiations with the Army have always been difficult,” said Pete Capell, director of Clark County Public Works, in a Thursday Columbian story. “It’s not our responsibility to clean up their mess. We don’t have the resources to do it in the first place.”
We’re glad the commissioners have set the deadline, and we hope the foot-dragging feds will respond to the political pressure. Once they resume cleaning up the mess they made, the largely forested area can become a county park. That conversion, of course, could take years, but if the county and the Army cannot reach agreement on a new contract, then a process that already has taken too long could be shelved even longer.
Five years ago the Army provided a $28.6 million fixed-price contract for cleaning up Camp Bonneville. Most of that money has been spent — or misspent, according to Army officials who complained about the expenses listed by the contractor. But rehashing old contract disputes is no way to get this stalled project back in motion. The latest sticking point is the Army’s reluctance to pay a $2.5 million insurance deductible for removing lead from the site. Earlier, the cleanup contractor complained that Army officials greatly underestimated how much work was needed.
