Risk Of Hiring Small Scale Lead Salvagers For Your Gun Range Maintenance Services. Expectations vs. Reality During a Site Visit.

Recently MT2 Firing Range Services completed a site visit for a gun range needing lead reclamation. A Gun range site visit service is a standard practice we routinely complete for more extensive projects, which consist of:

Tailgate meeting at range location to discuss the purpose of the visit, identifying customer need, concerns, goals for the outcome of firing range lead reclamation, and or maintenance services for their range project.
Discuss sampling if required for lead reclamation, treatability, and or remediation purposes.
Walk the site to identify site conditions to determine access, off-site challenges, potential pathways of concern (wetlands, waterways, streams, ponding), stormwater discharge.
Determine what equipment may be the best use for lead reclamation (time and cost savings)

Typically sampling consists of:

Identify sampling locations and depths on a map or Google Earth locations.
Add range dimensions; add information to Chain of Custody.
Take digital photos of sampling locations, target systems, firing lines.

Something very interesting happened on this site visit!

Because of how the RFP read, it sounded like it was an existing project that just needed updating. When we inquired about the status before the site visit, they told us that the lead removal project had recently been awarded, but they ran into pretty dramatic issues after choosing the contractor with the lowest bid.

Below is the timeline of events of what they communicated to us happened:

The contractor was hired who submitted the lowest bid.
The contractor showed up with equipment and began working on positions.
Their equipment broke down a day or two into lead reclamation.
The contractor began hand sifting.
The contractor was let go on the spot.

The old saying “what you seek is not always what you get” rings accurate with small-scale lead contamination salvagers! Chances of this happening increase when the undertaking is of such complex nature it requires best management practices.

The Potential Risk You Face When You Compromise

If you are a gun range owner, you must be mindful of complying with all of the EPA and OSHA regulations. As easy as it may be to assume any lead salvager is aware of these laws, any deviation in the quality of work is a risk that falls squarely on your lap. This is called “Cradle-to-Grave,” and we wrote a thorough article with an infographic here.

Bear in mind most small-scale salvagers are often under-insured. To add insult to injury, limited resources associated with small-scale salvagers sometimes can hardly cover for any liability, and this leads to the perfect recipe for disaster.

Cost Implications

In some instances, fines and penalties levied for noncompliance or claims against harmful practices are sufficient to bring down a gun range business. In one case, South Carolina caught everyone’s attention when an environmental organization faced action for knowingly neglecting to protect its workers against lead poisoning. The resultant fines totaled a whopping $480,000! We compile a list of news stories related to this on our website here https://mt2.com/industry-research/

While There is Potential Risk, the Good News is That There is Help! Below are a few items to consider when hiring a lead maintenance contractor to perform services on your gun range.

Prequalification of Gun Range Contractors:

For gun range owners, it is essential to ask the gun range reclamation or lead maintenance contractor to present the following:

Documented audited financials (Complete with firm’s equity) The financials should be adequate to cover any claim or contractual breach.
Contractors must carry comprehensive insurance coverage, including Pollution Liability.
~At MT2, our $10 million insurance package protects the owner/manager and range because potential damages and regulatory fines for mismanagement can be hundreds of thousands up to millions of dollars.
The contractor must provide project contract documents.
The contractor must provide, upon request, their operating history and list of completed projects.

While they struggle to learn the ropes, small-scale lead salvagers can also miss stringent OSHA regulations and deadlines.
Unfortunately, your gun range can’t accommodate this. The results can be unacceptable work delays, revenue loss, and depending on state legislation, fines and penalties. For any degree of success, you should turn to professionals for this particular job.

MT2 has never received OSHA or EPA violations. In fact, not only does MT2 comply with regulations, but we have also helped establish industry standards for environmental and safety methods.

Get a FREE quote for your range at the most cost-effective & BEST VALUE with the LOWEST RISK and get the Highest value for reclaimed lead based on our #1 Nationwide position in the industry. No one reclaims more lead or finishes a project faster than MT2!

Click on the Contact tab above to reach out to the MT2 Range Engineer in your region!