ZeSpectre
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Warning on lead fallout at gun clubs
(09-28) 18:49 PDT -- For 40 years on clear mornings, avid shooters have turned out at the Petaluma Trap and Skeet Club for the sport of popping away at clay pigeons hurled into the air.
The western Sonoma County range looks idyllic with hawks and golden eagles diving over grazing sheep. But in a year's time, the rural outdoor range is strewn with seven tons of lead, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, which owns the land.
Health officials worry about even trace amounts of lead in gasoline, paint, plumbing, food and consumer products, which is why conservationists and regulators are warning about letting thousands of tons of lead accumulate at shooting ranges statewide.
Despite some cleanups and spotty county inspections, dozens of ranges in California remain under the radar of regulation.
Lead litter endangers wildlife and waterways, scientists say. Lead is so toxic that if consumed, it stunts the growth of animals and plants, and causes the loss of biological diversity, according to scientists at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Runoff from ranges can be rich in lead, said Tom Mumley, assistant executive officer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which halted the use of lead shot at shooting ranges near water in the mid-1990s.
"We think there are solutions that don't require lead shot."
But gun clubs, like the Petaluma Trap and Skeet Club, disagree.
"Lead's not a contaminant. It doesn't run with the water," said Jerry Cossey, club president of the Petaluma club who has been a member for all of its 40 years.
But costly cleanups show otherwise.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission water customers paid $25 million to clean up the now-closed Peninsula Gun Club near San Francisco Bay in Menlo Park. At Lake Merced, the city told the Pacific Rod and Gun Club to begin a lead study at the club's expense.
"There could well be more than 1,000 tons of lead remaining at the lake from skeet shooting over the years," said Tony Winnicker, commission spokesman. "That, of course, is a serious concern."
Wildlife at risk
Environmentalists and hunters are still at odds after a state law passed last year banned lead bullets in 14 counties. The law is intended to protect California condors from poisoning because the birds' food, dead birds and mammals, becomes contaminated when the animals consume lead ammunition or are shot with lead.
The condor preservation fight highlighted the issue of lead exposure and its effect on the environment, according to a recent report by the American Ornithological Society for Audubon California. Lead shot has also been banned for use at national wildlife refuges and some state parks. And the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service told duck and geese hunters to stop using lead ammunition by 1991 as a way of protecting wetlands and water.
"There's no good reason to be putting lead in the environment ... it's clear it's toxic," said Graham Chisholm, Audubon California's conservation director.
Diane Hichwa, conservation chair of the local Madrone Audubon Society, agreed. "Lead as an environmental contaminant could be quite detrimental in the area west of Petaluma, which is a wintering area for raptors as they move along the Pacific Flyway."
The Petaluma shooting range, scattered with spent shot and broken clay, could attract golden eagles, hawks, peregrine falcons, American kestrels and merlins, said Melissa Pitkin, education director of PRBO Conservation Science.
Betty Burridge, famed editor of "Sonoma County Breeding Bird Atlas," singled out birds that would "eat off the ground" - California quails, mourning doves, rock pigeons and wild turkeys. Barn owls, which nest in the area, eat rats and mice that could pick up lead from the ground.
Coast Guard monitoring
Most ranges aren't required to report the release of lead. The amount of lead left behind by the Petaluma Trap and Skeet Club - which can serve as an indicator for other ranges - came to light only because the Coast Guard must submit an annual report to the EPA.
For the first time in 2006 and 2007, the Coast Guard reported that 300,000 shots fired at the club resulted in an annual 14,000 pounds of lead.
Patrick Nelligan, environmental protection specialist at the Coast Guard Training Center at Petaluma, said the Coast Guard adheres to the EPA's "best management" practices on outdoor shooting ranges, which outline how lead should be recovered, recycled and kept from moving outside of the range.
Nelligan said the club pays for a lead cleanup at least every five years. The top 2 inches of soil are removed and the shot is separated on the 1,000-foot by 225-foot fall zone. The grass seed planted by the club and alfalfa grown by Sonoma County farmers help to inhibit lead runoff from the range, he said.
The club is required to hire a company to test the soil every other year.
The most recent soil monitoring reported the highest lead concentration of 17,000 parts per million and the average of nine samples taken in the fall zone at 2,165 ppm, said Nelligan, who reviews the results. The lead isn't considered hazardous waste by the EPA because it's on a shooting range - and eventually will be recycled. If it were a hazardous waste site, the ratio would have to be cleaned up to 1,000 ppm.
The sampling of soil is limited to the shooting range, Nelligan said. The Coast Guard assumes that the topography and vegetation limit migration offsite of lead, he said.
Resistance to change
Shooters bristle at the idea that their sport is harmful to the environment and resist changing the shot they use.
There appear to be 80 gun clubs in California, according to Clay Targets Online. Lead is the cheapest, most popular shot. If the lead peppered on the range west of Petaluma is any indication of what small outdoor ranges accumulate in a year, lead litter statewide could reach 500 tons a year.
Representatives of the Pacific International Trapshooting Association and the California State Trapshooting Association refused to respond to queries about membership and any movement toward replacing lead shot.
Skeet aficionados prefer lead shot, saying non-toxic substitutes cost much more. Steel, one alternative, can damage older guns, takes more powder to shoot and is not as effective, they say.
Jeff Miller, conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, said there are at least 10 approved nontoxic types of shot other than lead and steel and some were designed to approximate the density and weight of lead.
"As regulations and interest in using non-lead shot increase, the price is going to come down," Miller said. "Lead's been a useful metal. But from what we know... there's no reason to keep using it."
E-mail Jane Kay at [email protected].
My friend uses old wheel weights for his lead bullets. Isn't recycling environmentally friendly?
