The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is beginning to clean up an old naval bombing range where hundreds of homes have been built.

News 8 began covering this story of this South Arlington neighborhood more than four years ago. Video: Don Wall reports  

The area, near the corner of Matlock and Harris roads, was used as a bombing range during World War II, and ever since new residents began discovering shrapnel and unexploded ordnance in their yards, an effort has been under way to fix the issue.

Jack Felker is among government contractors who are now searching for bombs around the neighborhood.

"As we go across stuff, you can hear the signal it's giving off," Felker said, pointing towards his metal detector. "Once we find something, I try to pinpoint it."

In this particular case, he finds what he's looking for. About two feet down, he locates a Mark 23 practice bomb, dropped by a Navy pilot around 60 years ago.

The Army Corps of Engineers is beginning the $1 million cleanup of 162 acres - the Twin Parks Estates and Southridge Hills subdivisions containing hundreds of homes built on the old bombing range.

"There's always the possibility we could set one off, but not very likely, to be honest," said Dwayne Ford of the Corps of Engineers. "The risk from this ordnance is relatively low, but we want to reduce it even lower."

Marcus Bradley said his sister had no idea her house was built where bombs once fell until she went to a public meeting in 2001, when neighbors first learned about the danger.

"Somebody is going to have to be injured, maimed, killed," one homeowner said at the time. "What's it going to take to get some action?"

Some people are suing KBHome, which said the site was remediated and certified by the government. However, the Corps of Engineers expects to find practice bombs underground in people's yards.

"That spotting charge could still be live, even after 60 years," Ford said.

Each bomb contains a charge equivalent to a 12-gauge shotgun.

"We live on pins and needles right now," Bradley said. "You never know when it's going to go."