COUNTYWIDE : Airport Ordnance Report Discounted

A Camarillo Airport official has questioned the accuracy of a report claiming that Air Force munitions are buried on the property.

The airport property, which was the site of Oxnard Air Force Base from 1965 to 1969, was listed Tuesday in an Associated Press story about aging explosives that remain hidden at 259 U. S. military installations and are scheduled to be cleaned up by the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers in the next five years.

But the airport official, who asked not to be identified, doubts whether any munitions could be stored at Camarillo Airport. The Air Force, which kept a few jet fighters at the base, used aboveground storage bunkers because “if you dig down 10 feet, you hit water,” the official said.

The official speculated that the former Air Force base was listed by the Corps of Engineers not for hidden munitions but because of a toxic spill caused by a fuel mishap in 1967. About 1,500 contaminated sites exist at former military bases in the United States, according to Corps of Engineers records.

Dry Canyon, a remote wilderness about 17 miles west of Frazier Park, is also on the list. It was used by the Army as an artillery range during World War II and is believed to contain unexploded shells.