Shooting Range Threatens Wetlands
by Josey Paul
|
The headwaters of Sadie Creek, about 20 miles west of Port Angeles,
are perfect for birds and salmon. The forest is wet and mossy and
filled with clean-gravel streams and lots and lots of bugs. Early on
any spring morning, bird songs rise to such a cacophonous volume that
the mist seems to swirl with the celebration. |
J. Paul |
Shooting ranges – all shooting ranges – quickly become toxic waste sites. It takes just three years for the typical outdoor range to become as contaminated with lead as a five-acre Superfund site, according to the Environmental Working Group.*
This kind of contamination is commonplace even at small shooting sites.
For example, when state Department of Ecology technicians randomly tested soil at an informal shooting site between Port Angeles and Sequim, every sample had two to five times the lead contamination that could trigger a Superfund cleanup.**
Lead is toxic at any dosage. It is taken up by plants and works its way up the food chain. Fish and wildlife weakened by lead poisoning fall easier prey to raptors and other predators, and these predators in turn suffer secondary lead poisoning.
Because shooting ranges have done so much damage to the environment and to the health of wildlife, people, and communities around the nation, the EPA, in cooperation with all 50 states and with the National Rifle Association and other shooting organizations, developed a Best Management Practices (BMP) guide to help communities locate and operate shooting ranges responsibly.***
The strongest recommendation of the BMP is to avoid putting shooting ranges in or near streams and wetlands -- especially in areas such as Sadie Creek with its high rainfall and shallow groundwater.
These headwater wetlands are major spawning and rearing areas for salmon. The community has recently invested about $2 million in salmon restoration in this watershed, including five projects on the proposed shooting range itself. Close to 1 million pounds of wood (think 18 logging trucks) have been dropped by helicopter or shovel into Sadie Creek. This work led the state’s Salmon Recovery Funding Board to pick the Sadie Creek system as one of its scientific study rivers. Scientists are studying the effectiveness of the salmon-restoration work. This study is designed to last 12 to 20 years.
We need to let our commissioners know that the location of this project is a bad idea. The OPAS Conservation Committee suggests that members write to the Clallam County Commissioners (commissioners@co.clallam.wa.us) or 223 East 4th Street, Suite 4, Port Angeles, Washington 98362. Ask them not to locate the shooting range in this sensitive wetland. Ask them to prohibit the use of lead bullets.
Josey Paul is an OPAS member, a former financial journalist, an active environmentalist, founder of Skyfire Unlimited, and editor of Solar Washington. In 2004, Josey received an OPAS Conservation Award for his efforts in stopping the Department of Transportation from spraying herbicides along state roads within Clallam County and beginning a policy of planting native plants along the roadsides.
* "Poisonous Pastime" (2001). An Environmental Working Group study on lead at outdoor shooting ranges.
** The DOE sampling was taken June 19, 2000. The analysis was by Manchester Environmental Laboratory for the Washington State Department of Ecology. Incident ID: S510541.
*** "Best Management Practices for Lead at Outdoor Shooting Ranges," EPA-902-B-01-001, (2001), United States Environmental Protection Agency.