SUNRIVER, Ore. -- Six decades after a patch of Central Oregon woods was cleared and became a World War II training camp, the current property owners in the resort town of Sunriver are suing the federal government and former owners of the land to be sure they’re not stuck with the potentially multi-million dollar cost of removing asbestos-laden building materials.

The lawsuit, filed July 22 by the Sunriver Owners Association, seeks up to $3.2 million, in case state environmental officials require complete removal of the asbestos under stringent health procedures, rather than the preferred alternative of capping it underground.

The move comes eight years after resort officials found construction debris containing asbestos that was scattered over six acres by the current Sunriver Amphitheatre, near Beaver Drive.

The community later worked out a voluntary agreement with the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to determine how much asbestos was there and to develop a cleanup plan.

To this point, environmental engineers have overseen the removal of several hundred pounds of asbestos-containing material, including bits and pieces of flooring, roofing, siding and interior construction material, mostly from cement siding, said Bill Peck, general manager of the Sunriver Owners Association.

The material was used during construction of the former Camp Abbot, demolished years before Sunriver was developed as a resort in the 1960s. Asbestos was a popular insulating material for more than a century, until it was linked to deadly cancers and other lung diseases, prompting its regulation by federal officials.

Materials containing asbestos are not harmful to humans, unless and until they are broken into pieces, which can release tiny fibers into the air, where they can be inhaled, DEQ spokeswoman William Knight told The Register-Guard newspaper in Eugene.

Air sampling while the material was removed found asbestos levels far below the permissible exposure limit set by federal OSHA regulations, Peck said. The testing found no asbestos fibers at the perimeter of the amphitheater during the work, and no or “extremely low” levels in the air where the soil was excavated.

In May, Sunriver submitted a feasibility study to DEQ that detailed Sunriver’s proposed cleanup plan. DEQ staff approved the proposed cleanup plan, which was posted for public notice and comment on Aug. 1.

The resort’s plan calls for capping the asbestos-containing material in the sub-surface soil with a synthetic layer, topped by two feet of clean fill and more layers of concrete or asphalt.

The work would be done as part of Sunriver’s proposed development of a new aquatic center at the amphitheater location, which SROA members are now voting on; the ballots will be counted on Aug. 14. The project, to replace two older pools, would cost each property owner $4,395, in lump sum or spread over five or 15 years.

Under the proposed cleanup plan, Sunriver also would be required to maintain and monitor the cap, to be sure it is not penetrated in the future.

In a news release, the SROA noted that under state and federal law, a land owner whose property is contaminated by hazardous substances used or released by previous property owners or operators can sue to recover the costs of cleaning it up.

Among other former owners of the site named in the lawsuit: the Shevlin-Hixon Co., and Hudspeth Land & Livestock Inc.

The lawsuit says all knew or should have known a hazardous material was buried on the property - a fact the current property owners say was not disclosed to them.

To date, the association has spent over $180,000 to investigate and remove the material. The cost to encapsulate the material on site is estimated at $350,000. But those costs could jump to an estimated $3.2 million, if Sunriver must remove, rather than cap, all of the asbestos estimated to be located at the site.

“If done as a stand-alone (project),” rather than through the aquatic center construction, peck said the material would need to be hauled away to a designated hazardous materials site and replaced with clean fill, rather than capped as part of the building project.

DEQ’s final decision on the cleanup remedy is due to be issued in September.

“In the meantime, Sunriver’s filing of the lawsuit preserves its ability to recover its costs for the cleanup from the parties responsible for the disposal of construction debris years before Sunriver was developed,” the SROA statement concluded.