Anyone have any incidents of a local gun club getting hassled or even shut down for lead contamination on their range?  Our club has become aware of some hysteria coming out of Dutchess County on this issue, but as we research the issue we don't find where any state agency has the authority to shut anyone down for lead.  We do find where the EPA "encourages" shooting ranges to adopt and implement a "Best Management Practices" plan, but this seems voluntary.

Anyone have any first hand knowledge on this issue?  Any clubs doing the BMP plan?  Your feedback would be appreciated.

Contact the NRA on this. My high school range was shut down for a few years until new ventilation equipment was installed. It is a legitimate issue for an indoor range. The Dutchess cases are just examples of citiots moving up and trying to shut down those ranges.

It might not be a state agency shutting you down, but the EPA.

Contact someone on the rifle committee at Forbes,
http://home.nycap.rr.com/forbesrpc/
I know from talking to someone once in the pits at a match a few years ago that they
were doing clean-up of the rifle berm periodically to satisfy some regulatory agency.
Don't remember which agency but as I remember it wasn't to difficult. Basically taking
the top layer off the berm down to a certain depth to get all the bullets and putting it in
barrels to be disposed of by a prescribed ("lead abatement") manner. The most important
thing seemed to be meticulous record keeping of what they were doing and how often.
I think some guy in the club who was/is an engineer was in charge. And they did it themselves.

L.jr.

Vly,


Which range? Although I am a recent Westchester transplant, I am already sick n tired of the urbanites moving up here, wanting every little city amenity (my wife is the worst of the lot, she forgets that we moved here to get AWAY from this crap)

If you'd rather not say, hit me off forum with a PM.

/ml/Drew

I've been out of the loop for a while, but at one time there was some hassle about lead on Trap fields...nothing ever came of iit. There was a company that would come in with a machine that would excavate the top soil, extract the lead, and return the soil.  
Check with the NRA, they have local/regional field reps. who can assist with ranges.
NYSRPA might be able to help.
YMMV

Yes they can shut you down for lead. In Jersey they have come down on clubs here.  The club i belong to is also looking into this subject.  Other clubs that have had to have the clean up done say it cost them 1 MILLION DOLLERS to do the clean up.  As far as we know EVERYONE in the club is responsibe for the clean up cost.

Thank you to those who have responded so far.  I got an IM which seemed to insinuate that my reason for asking this question was to avoid managing our range in a responsible manner.  That is far from the truth.  Our club has safety at every level as our highest priority.  What we fear though, is that someone would use the lead issue as a way to litigate our club to closing.  We could win the battle but lose the war.  So the reason for my question is to gather information on what other clubs are experiencing so we can plan our defense.  If the main reason some clubs are getting approached on the lead issue is driven by local opposition, then we know what our first level of defense should be.  If the issue is driven purely by the EPA or similiar agency, our defense will be somewhat different.

Thanks to those who  have provided links or suggestions on who to contact, I will be following up on these.

3rdStreet -  I would appreciate any specifics you could give on this.  Is it a state or federal agency driving it?  

The EPA has a very extensive lead abatement and monitoring protocol.  Two clubs that I belong to have begun the monitoring phase in the last year.  It requires that the shooters record the number of rounds fired, and the weight in gains of the projectile.  Currently the process is voluntary, but the EPA has been starting to lean on most of the local clubs.

Everything you wanted to know about EPA compliance but were afraid to ask.

www.epa.gov/region02/waste/leadshot/


I used to do regulatory compliance consulting and am currently working on my local rod and gun club's range compliance commity. The EPA has been involved in shuting down a few ranges, but it was over an issue of comtaminated wetlands, not the basic lead on the range issue. Feel free to either PM me or post to this thread and I'll answer any questions if I can.