CTUIR, Divers Pull 3 Vehicles from Johnley Pond

MISSION – Expecting only one vehicle, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (CTUIR) Planning Department employees, volunteer divers and others pulled three vehicles from Johnley Pond on April 12 near the Cayuse community.

CTUIR Environmental Health & Safety Specialist Brian Fullen said he knew of a 1979 Ford F-150 truck in the pond and had scheduled the dive to remove it. However, once divers got in the water they found a mid-2000s Dodge Cummins diesel truck and 1984 Camaro Iroc, which were also extracted.

“They were in the water two minutes and found another vehicle that we weren’t even planning on. There's been lots of rumors of vehicles in the bottom of it, but we just found a newer vehicle that we’re going to be pulling out of the pond,” Fullen said. “But we were able to pull the 70s-model Ford truck out...It's been a longtime process, lots of meetings, lots of water testing and talks with different federal agencies on cleanup processes.”

Fullen said the volunteer divers were part of Oregon Rescue Divers from the Bend and Lincoln City areas. Other groups helping pull the vehicles from the pond were the Umatilla Tribal Fire Department, Umatilla Tribal Police Department (UTPD), CTUIR Emergency Management, CTUIR Public Safety, CTUIR Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Eastern Oregon Towing. 

Located along Johnley Road north of the Umatilla River, the 30-foot-deep pond is a former rock quarry that during the years became an illegal dump, shooting range and party spot, Fullen said.

The Planning Department initiated the cleanup of the pond and its surrounding area this past fall after learning of the Ford truck going into the pond. Since then the department along with the CTUIR’s UTPD, DNR, Office of Legal Counsel and Public Works have worked to clean the pond and its surrounding area.

Fullen said the property being split among several owners has made the pond’s cleanup difficult.

“That being said, it is moving forward, it's just slowly,” he said. “But surely we’ll have the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) out here in the next month or so that are going to be doing soil sampling for the shooting range as lead is a hard metal. It’s interesting as the pond’s come back to life. It’s full of perch, bass, saw some baby catfish, about a 20- or 30-pound goldfish and screaming bullfrogs…It’s very lively, very alive pond.”

The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation is comprised of the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla, and formed under the Treaty of 1855 at the Walla Walla Valley, 12 Stat. 945. In 1949, the Tribes adopted a constitutional form of government to protect, preserve and enhance the reserved treaty rights guaranteed under federal law.