Camp Bonneville Update
For background on developments and issues regarding Clark County’s nearly 4,000-acre conservation property, view our last Camp Bonneville Breakdown for the newsletter here.
The Clark County Council’s Initial Vote Against the FBI Contract
On Tuesday, August 19th, after sustained advocacy from the community over many years to protect the public safety, health, and interest, the Clark County Council voted down a new contract for the FBI’s continued use of Camp Bonneville, Clark County’s nearly 4,000 acre, forested conservation conveyance and former military reservation.
Friends of Clark County joined with other voices in the community in speaking out on the issues surrounding Camp Bonneville. Since then, it was reported that 12,000 rounds of the FBI’s unsecured ammunition being stored on the property was stolen by criminals back in January, reigniting old concerns from the community about liabilities to the county posed by the FBI’s misuse.
Our position has been that the County needs to move forward with its plans for conservation and public access by focusing on the cleanup, not managing a host of law enforcement activities for many more years. Camp Bonneville is a beautiful, wild place that has experienced much abuse in its history, and it was provided to the County with the intent of remediation and the purpose of natural resource conservation.
We advocated to the county in meetings as well as conversations to take the decisive actions necessary to realize the future for Camp Bonneville, starting with the Council declining to move forward with new law enforcement agreements and creating an actionable plan to accommodate the Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s needs at a new, appropriate location.
The majority of the Council appeared to be headed in that direction by exploring other options for shooting areas for CCSO and by finally voting against the FBI’s continued misuse of the property.
An Unfortunate Turn of Events
Since the FBI vote, the FBI sought private meetings with councilors to continue to plead their case and ask for a re-do on the vote. Some residents were upset that councilors took those private meetings, prompting the Council to order a public work session for the FBI to make their case another time. When the Council ordered that work session, the majority strongly indicated that they would revisit a discussion about allowing the Friends of Camp Bonneville to present their historical knowledge and critical documentation regarding the environmental cleanup and law enforcement contamination prior to any reconsideration of FBI uses of Camp Bonneville.
Although the community was expecting a renewed discussion about a Friends of Camp Bonneville work session, an agenda item appeared for a December 3rd Council Time re-do vote on the FBI contract to continue using Camp Bonneville,
The community showed up once again in opposition. The majority vote (Councilors Little, Yung, and Belkot) voted to draw up another 2 year contract for the FBI anyway. Discussion continued regarding prohibiting storage of ammunition (given the break-in) and for some kind of payment for remediation, but the details were very vague and those elements were not voted on.
We’ll be looking out for this contract and will be paying attention to the details. Of course, we’ll let folks know when and how to engage!
The Cleanup Review of Camp Bonneville
At the same time, the Washington Department of Ecology has just wrapped up their first Periodic Review of Camp Bonneville. As a reminder, both Ecology and Clark County were audited by the state and were found to have not been complying with the mandatory 5-year reviews of the cleanup at Camp Bonneville, so this is the first ever Periodic Review. The comment period is now underway for both the Draft First Periodic Review and the Draft Updated Public Participation Plan, with the deadline set for December 31st. FOCC plans to review this report and submit comments, which we’ll make available to supporters!
There is a workshop on the Periodic Review in Hockinson on Wednesday, December 10th from 5:30pm to 8:30pm, which will permit the public to ask questions and provide comments. More information is available here: 2509069_CampBonnevilleFactSheetFinal (1)
For those who cannot make it, Ecology has made a video presentation of the report available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj2N56rFhZU