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VPC - Poisonous Pastime - Section One Page 14 of 16
<br />the environment. Prominent among these is the requirement that an environmental impact
<br />statement (EIS) be prepared for any major federal action that might significantly affect the quality of
<br />the human environment.89 No one appears yet to have explored whether, given the extensive
<br />federal assistance extended to the gun industry for its shooting range programs, certain federal
<br />agencies —such as the Fish & Wildlife Service —should be required to develop such plans.
<br />Other Major Pollution Sites
<br />A number of other shooting range environmental horror stories can be found in news reports from
<br />all over the country. The following are a few representative examples:
<br />• Westchester County, New York, entered into a consent decree with the EPA to clean up
<br />contamination from lead and targets at its Sportsmen's Center, located next to an elementary
<br />school. EPA sued the county under the imminent hazard provision of RCRA.90 The case
<br />prompted NSSF executive Bob Delfay to complain, "Lead is a four-letter word these days.i91
<br />• Illinois environmental officials got a toxic double whammy when it turned out that the
<br />backstop of a rifle range originally built for the 1959 Pan American Games was made of
<br />asbestos waste. In addition to lead pollution problems, officials learned that the asbestos had
<br />simply been bulldozed into Lake Michigan, then later recycled onto a public beach as part of
<br />dredging operations.92
<br />• A former skeet shooting range in Delaware earned the title "Harbeson Dead Swan Site" when
<br />it was designated a federal Superfund cleanup site after 41 dead black -billed tundra swans,
<br />victims of lead poisoning, were found by two bird watchers. The kill was reportedly one of the
<br />highest ever recorded for tundra swans. Federal taxpayers paid for the estimated $200,000
<br />cleanup cost. The EPA originally tried to hide ownership of the site after a meeting with the
<br />owners was arranged by Senator Joseph Biden (D-DE), but relented under media pressure.93
<br />Taxpayers were also slated to pay the $250,000 cleanup costs at another private skeet -
<br />shooting range on Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware. "[T]he club doesn't have
<br />the money," the organization's treasurer said. "I'm sure it would bankrupt us."94
<br />e) Skeet, trap, and sporting clays are variants of an activity in which a circular disc is hurled, usually
<br />mechanically, simulating the flight of a game bird within sight of the shooter, who is armed with a
<br />shotgun. The object is to react quickly and accurately enough to hit and shatter the disc, sometimes
<br />called a "clay pigeon," with shotgun pellets.
<br />f) The U.S. military was reported to have closed more than 700 firing ranges as of August 1999 due
<br />to lead contamination, and taken major steps to clean up and prevent further contamination at
<br />others. "Army shoots for safe environment with tungsten bullets," American Metal Market, August
<br />26, 1999, 4. Although beyond the scope of this study, the military's approach contrasts with the
<br />head -in -the -sand attitude of many civilian range owners and operators.
<br />g) Many symptoms of chronic overexposure are subtle. They include loss of appetite, metallic taste
<br />in the mouth, anxiety, constipation, nausea, pallor, excessive tiredness, weakness, insomnia,
<br />headache, nervous irritability, muscle and joint pain or soreness, fine tremors, numbness, dizziness,
<br />hyperactivity, and colic.
<br />h) Each round of ammunition is composed of four parts: (1) a bullet, or pellets in the case of a
<br />shotgun round, seated in (2) a cylindrical shell casing (or case), within which is (3) a charge of
<br />gunpowder, and (4) a primer, seated in the base of the case. The firing pin strikes the primer, made
<br />of a highly explosive compound, which explodes and in turn ignites the gunpowder. The burning
<br />http://www.vpc.org/studies/leadone.htm 2/5/2014
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