rep4@wyomingnews.com

CHEYENNE - A test to see if highly-trained dogs could identify the scent of unexploded ordnance does not appear to have been successful.

The test, which was run during the month of September on the closed firing ranges at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, was conducted by RONCO Consulting Corporation. The idea was to see if the dogs could differentiate between unexploded ordnance (UXO) and other metallic material.

John Wright, chief of environmental restoration management at F.E. Warren, said the dogs did not identify the UXO.

"The results we had were not what we wanted," he said. "When they don't sit on one that is an explosive - that's pretty much a failure."

This was the first test of its kind in the United States. The hope was to reduce the amount of manual labor required to find and remove UXO by seeing if the dogs could identify it.

At its onset, the test had been promising. Even falsely identifying a few items as UXO would dramatically cut the cost of cleanup.

Wright said the soil in Wyoming is very compact, which could play a role in why the test was unsuccessful. Additionally, many items could be buried as deep as four feet.

For now, the idea of using dogs to detect UXO in other parts of the country is still a possible tool, Wright said. Many other technologies are still in the works as well.

Currently, the base has about 3,000 acres that contain UXO, and the process of removing it is very costly. Wright said the investigation of the area at F.E. Warren had $11 million budgeted. He said there was another $12 million budgeted for the cleanup.

Teams are sent out to make a geophysical map of the area first. They mark anywhere they find an anomaly in the soil. Anomalies can be anything including UXO, bits of metal or magnetic rocks. Currently there is no technology that can consistently differentiate UXO from everything else in the soil. Each mark must then be dug by hand.

Joe Goehring, project manager for URS, the company contracted in the cleanup at F.E. Warren, said his teams made 68,000 digs in the 3,000-acre area. He said only 750 of those digs uncovered live items.

But the base is still in the process of investigating the scope of the problem. When teams find an item, they dig it up rather than leave it.

Wright said once the investigation of the land is complete, a feasibility study will start. However, the best option may be to leave most of the anamolies where they are or only remove them when there are construction plans for the land.

"That may be the most cost effective way," Wright said. "Do you want to spend this kind of money (to remove the UXO) when there's no construction planned?"

He said there is little environmental risk to leaving the UXO where it is.

Goehring said the site is relatively safe compared to some other sites because of how difficult it is to access. He said the biggest risk UXO poses are to people who are unaware of the danger when they enter a range.

Now that the Department of Defense has put special emphasis on cleaning up bases, managers of installations with firing ranges are required to be proactive in keeping them free of UXO.

At Camp Guernsey, the ranges are routinely cleaned.

"Anytime we have a unit that shoots potential dudded munitions, after they're gone, then our guys go out on the range," said Garrison Commander Col. Steve Mount.

Added Mount, "In fact, the impact area is set up specifically for dudded missions."

2nd Lt. Aaron Ohnstad, assistant operations officer and range control officer at Camp Guernsey, said the process is even more intricate than going out and scanning for UXO.

Ohnstad said he knows the number of rounds that are fired, the number that perform correctly and their location.

He said every now and they will come across something left over from years before, but it's rare.