Just heard they cleaned out 23 tons of lead boolets from the range in Blacksburg, VA. Environmental studies showed very localized leaching of lead - not getting into the aquifers. Probably was done in the last year (Virginia Tech ROTC range with public access). Just heard it today on the AM WVTF 1260. Two year accumulation.

Now, if we could just lay our hands on that lead--------------Heaven!

Yea. We're ALL into recycling.

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Originally posted by trk:
Yea. We're ALL into recycling.

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Saw on the news yesterday that a gun club in California was being pressured to move out by their neighbors who complain about the constant sound of gunfire echoing down the canyon. People will move next to something, like an airport, knowing it is there and then complain about the noise. However, what I am getting to is the environmentalist fringe of those wanting to do away with the gun range are pointing to the lead accumulation and saying it is a threat to the water supply. Gun range designers/owners would be well advised to be proactive about this issue. They could head off the attack by providing catch basins for water run off, where the water could harmlessly evaporate from a lined pool. The noise is not an easy issue.

hey guys this is serious shit. our club just finished a new range after 2 years of legal battles (8 times to court) our county board only had the balls to listen to the whinners and lead contamination was one of their big points. Never mind that we had big clay banks to shoot into and that the basis PH of the clay encapsulated the lead and made it harmless, they had a flag to waive.

Here in Missouri there are lead mines all over the state. You can test for lead in the soil about anyplace and get a positive reading. Any of the people it affects mentally we just send them to Arkansas and they fit in fine. <G>

I recently saw a similar report about the examination of a range in the mid-atlantic area that also showed no water contamination by lead leaching into the ground or surface water. I would conclude that all the "contamination" hoopla was just that. It seems that every local range sold because of encroaching population does not become a Hazardous site, but rather a new housing project, or the like. Think of all the Civil War battlefields. They are not hazardous now and they are covered with spent bullets. Mere left wing, liberal, anti-gun B.S. ned

I belong to a 60+ year old gunclub and we have similar issues. Fortunately lead leaches very slowly and it can be controlled. The main problem in our area is acid rain. Frequent and heavy applications of lime in and around the backstop area will neutralize the acid and reduce the leaching to almost zero.

If you belong to a gun club, you might want to start doing something BEFORE it becomes a problem.

We apply lime at our club and are careful to document all lead management activities. I'm given to understand that the lead in the ground actually saved our club. If we cease to be a shooting range, the lead will need to be remediated, and that made the "next thing" to do with the land too expensive to do.

H. C.

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If you belong to a gun club, you might want to start doing something BEFORE it becomes a problem.

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There are many approaches which can be taken to forestall "male bovine feces science", which exists in just about every area of public pressures today, from criminology to space rocketry.

One of the most effective ways may be the one our club is using...we now have the head of the regional DEQ office as a life member of our club. You can be sure he listens to REAL science when the ecoterrorists try to close HIS club.

Alberta Canuck