UXO Site selected: Camp Dodge & Polk County Guard Range, IO |
General Area: , IO Site Type/Program: RCWM sites (Non-stockpile) Location: Camp Dodge is located in Polk County, 10 miles north of Des Moines. Presently, the Iowa National Guard operates approximately 2,200 acres as a military reservation. Brief History: The Iowa National Guard prior to World War I (WWI) established Camp Dodge to house and train National Guard troops. During WWI, Camp Dodge served as a U.S. Army induction center and later as a convalescent center and hospital. A historical map from the World War I era shows a gas instruction house located west of the cantonment area in the Beaver Creek flood plain. Training records from the 1920s and 1930s indicate that the Iowa National Guard and the Chemical Warfare Service used Camp Dodge for training. The facility was again used as a U.S. Army induction center during World War II. Camp Dodge reverted to the Iowa National Guard in the 1950s. In 1965, 872 acres including the former rifle ranges were transferred to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) to form Saylorville Reservoir. In 1989, the U.S. Army Technical Escort Unit retrieved a PIG (steel cylindrical container) of the type used to contain Chemical Agent Identification Set, M1 (CAIS K951) from a loading dock at Camp Dodge. At the time of the site visit (February 12-13, 2003) Camp Dodge continues to be operated by the Iowa National Guard. |
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Range / Site Description: Associated Munitions: Activities Completed: While documentation exists that training with CWM occurred at Camp Dodge, there is no evidence of disposal or burial of CWM on site. The gas instruction house is located next to the rifle ranges in an area prone to flooding. The land use for this site is likely to remain the same for the indefinite future. Information gathered by the site visit team indicates that the M1 CAIS recovered at Camp Dodge in 1989 was brought to the site from another location. Issues: The State of Iowa and U.S. EPA regulators are in agreement with the Corps that the long-term solution is community education and signage. Other Information: |
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