Long-forgotten bombs found in California residents’ backyards

Press-Enterprise

Robert Frick’s children aren’t allowed to dig around his California house. Engineers advised him not to dig around his vineyard.

More than 60 years ago, warplanes used Frick’s Temecula Valley Wine Country property for target practice. Now, he can rarely dig a hole without unearthing shell casings, bombs and rusted metal.

“It’s very stressful,” the 41-year-old firefighter said. “It’s unnerving with the unknown of finding something that may be live.”

An Army Corps of Engineers report has detailed possible environmental hazards around the area known as Temecula Bombing Target No. 107 in California.

While no live bombs have gone off, the report recommends “immediate removal action” and further study at the site, home to 364 people and 26,886 within a four-mile radius, according to 2006 Census figures. Residents said they didn’t know the land was once a bombing target.

The site is one of more than 20 Riverside, Calif., area properties being looked at as part of a military review of former munitions ranges.

Former bombing ranges have posed problems elsewhere. Earlier this month, the Army detonated more than 400 pounds of bombs and munitions found on the grounds of an Orlando, Fla., middle school. The area used to be a World War II bombing range.

According to a report by the Georgia-based consultant firm Parsons, the Navy acquired 160 acres of land sometime after Dec. 1, 1944. The land was used for rocket firing, strafing and bombing until 1946.

At the time, Temecula Valley was sparsely populated, much of it ranch-owned. From the 1960s on, developers filled the valley with houses, and the first vineyards took root.

Today, hilltop homes, small horse ranches, dirt roads, citrus groves and vineyards occupy the site. While the target itself was 160 acres, the corps is examining a 649-acre swath to account for munitions that missed their mark. Some of the homes in the area are valued at more than $700,000.

Lloyd Godard, a corps project manager overseeing the site, said inspections depend on funding and which sites have highest priority. “We have so many sites and so little money, we have to prioritize everything,” he said.

Last July, inspectors walked a portion of the bombing target and took soil samples. Parsons representatives also did phone interviews with residents.

One of the 10 soil samples contained TNT, although there wasn’t enough to pose a human health risk, the report read.

Godard said officials are working out details of what to do. Generally there’s a six-month window for removal activities, he said.