Protecting Wildlife from Lead resulting in Shooting Range Activities

Spent lead from outdoor shooting ranges is oftentimes available to wildlife and this has harmful effects. In fact, the Arizona Game and Fish Department says this is the leading cause behind the death of the endangered California Condors in their Arizona-California re-introductory program. However, even if they weren’t endangered, harming them will still result in fines and penalties leveraged against you under laws the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) have established. 

 

This is why it’s important for your outdoor shooting range to take the following steps to remedy this problem:

• Evaluate the existing environmental conditions
• Control and contain any lead bullets (and their fragments)
• Keep lead from migrating into subsurface groundwater and any other water bodies
• Occasionally remove the lead from your range and recycle it
• Document and record your actions in this regard

Unfortunately, not just any lead salvager can do these things for you. This is because even low levels of lead are unhealthy for the human body and smaller lead salvaging companies typically don’t carry enough insurance. Without the resources to complete the gun range lead reclamation project safely and correctly, when they go under, more than likely your business will also go under. 

Fines from either improperly caring for the lead from your firing range or from hiring the wrong company to handle the job for you are steep. In 2012, OSHA fined an environmental organization in South Carolina for knowingly neglecting “to protect workers from overexposure to lead.”  

With these things in mind, you can understand why you need a qualified lead salvager to properly clean your range. You also need to create a written maintenance procedure specifying your range’s daily, weekly, 6-month, and annual maintenance tasks. Also include what range surfaces need cleaned with wet mops and HEPA filtered (high-efficiency particulate air). So, don’t delay, do your due diligence starting today.

 

 

MT2 is the Leading Nationwide Professional Lead Reclamation & Maintenance Contractor for BOTH Indoor & Outdoor Firing Ranges and has served over 1,000 public and private firing ranges nationwide since 2000. MT2’s firing range services include complete range maintenance, improvements and lead remediation services.

MT2’s extensive list of clients includes over 400 law enforcement agencies such as NYPD, State Departments of Corrections, and the US Military. Since 2006, MT2 has been implementing a BMP Program for lead management and maintenance that successfully reduces lead hazards at the NYPD training range where over 40,000 officers and recruits train annually. The NYPD BMP Program includes removal and recycling of lead bullets and bullet fragments; sampling, analysis and monitoring of soil and groundwater conditions; and chemically converting potential leachable lead fines remaining in range soils utilizing MT2’s patented ECOBOND® lead treatment technologies so that treated soils are considered non-hazardous and can be replaced back onto range berms.