New information provided to Clark County and the state Department of Ecology has raised concerns about how Camp Bonneville is being used by law enforcement agencies.
In September, the state auditor’s office found that both Ecology and the county had failed to conduct periodic reviews of cleanup activities at Camp Bonneville as required. Ecology is now working on completing the review, and Clark County sent questionnaires to the FBI; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and other agencies using the county shooting range at Camp Bonneville about how the site is used.
Friends of Camp Bonneville member Gregory Shaw, who served on a community advisory group disbanded by the county, said those questionnaires revealed troubling practices.
According to the FBI questionnaire, the agency uses the property 70 to 80 days a year. However, Shaw said the last contract with the FBI in effect limited use to 45 days a year. The contract expired in 2022 and is currently in negotiations.
“(The county has) obviously agreed to significantly expand the federal use of county land without any signed agreement and without any compensation since the agreement expired in December 2022,” Shaw said. “Why? How does this benefit the citizens of Clark County?”
Site established in 1909
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 Clark County.
With millions of dollars in grant funding from the Army, the county undertook efforts to clear the property of unexploded ordnance, explosive compounds, munitions and lead, as well as cleaning up soil and groundwater contaminants.
Four of the five contaminated areas are now considered clean. The remaining work involves removing sitewide groundwater contamination. Earlier this month, the council agreed to extend its contract with the Army to 2054, receiving $6 million in additional funding to assist with the cleanup.
“The topics of concern for the residents living around Camp Bonneville are numerous,” Vancouver resident Patti Reynolds said during Tuesday’s county council meeting. “The recent drafted agreement for the usage of the shooting range, the apparent storage of explosives within the camp boundaries by the ATF, and the continued inaccuracies in reporting the status of water contamination and remedial cleanup have filled up my brain.”
Teresa Hardy of Vancouver said the new information about law enforcement activities is a significant departure from the council’s previous discussions.
“We were assured in no uncertain terms that the county was negotiating a more stringent contract with the FBI and that it was regaining control over Camp Bonneville,” Hardy told the council Tuesday.
Instead, she said, the county has ceded management to the law enforcement agencies using the site, which then expanded their operations.
“This is supposed to be a (Model Toxics Control Act) cleanup site, not Disneyland for CCSO, the FBI, ATF, Portland Police, the Cowlitz Tribal Police, the metro bomb squad,” Shaw said. “Ecology seems to think this is all fine, even as the property is slowly reverting to a weapons training facility, and as most of the property is left uncleared of unexploded ordnances and untested for groundwater contamination.”
Seeking information
Council Chair Sue Marshall and Councilor Glen Yung said they want to look into the allegations. Yung said he will ask staff to bring the information to the council.
“I definitely want more information. I don’t know if they’re violating the contract or not,” he said. “That, to me, requires a course correction immediately if it’s found they are violating the terms of the contract.”
Yung said that if corrections can’t be made, the contract would need to be terminated.
“That’s the purpose of a contract: to regulate what does and doesn’t happen,” he said.
Deputy County Manager Amber Emery said a revised contact with the FBI should come back before the council for approval in early February.
