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Ashland puts conditions on lease for gun club site by VICKIE ALDOUS Thursday, April 8th 2010 A A ASHLAND — The City Council has approved a one-year lease extension with the Ashland Gun Club for use of city-owned land, but attached conditions after a study of the site revealed lead contamination. The council decided on Tuesday to require the club to work with city staff and a consultant to select steps to take that will better protect the environment. Changes could include using rubber mats in shooting areas to trap and contain bullets. Whether or not the site will remain a gun club in the future remains an open question. Some residents favor using the land for a park, and many of the people who live near the gun club are concerned about its impacts. The Ashland Gun Club has been using 32 acres of the city's Lithia Springs property near the Ashland Municipal Airport since about 1968. Ashland Gun Club representatives said there has never been an official clean-up of the area to remove lead that has been accumulating from bullets. The club has more than 400 family memberships and its users include the Ashland Police Department, the National Guard, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Forensics Laboratory and hunters' safety students, club representatives said. The firm Brown & Caldwell Consultants recently finished a preliminary study of the site that shows shooting range berms are contaminated with lead. Further testing is needed to see if groundwater is contaminated, said Kenn Conner of Brown & Caldwell Consultants. Skeet ranges at gun clubs are usually contaminated with petroleum products found in skeet targets. However, the Ashland Gun Club doesn't show that contamination, Conner said. Ashland Gun Club Vice President Bill Longiotti said the club uses biodegradable clay targets. He said the club also has been gathering lead and recycling it. Conner warned Gun Club members to stop collecting lead because of rigorous safety regulations governing the handling and disposal of hazardous wastes. Ashland Gun Club President Chuck Parlier said lead is used in bullets because bullets have to be heavy for their size to travel correctly through the air. A requirement to make shooters use lead-free bullets would be very difficult to enforce because it would be hard to police the ammunition people bring to the club, Conner and Ashland City Administrator Martha Bennett said. City Council members have yet to hear cost estimates for cleaning up the site. Costs would be lower if the area continues to be used as a gun club, and higher if the site is closed to shooting and cleaned up to meet standards for residential construction. Uncertainty remains about whether the city or the gun club would be legally responsible for clean-up costs. Gun club site clean-ups in other parts of the country have run into the millions of dollars when land is converted to other uses. Meanwhile, a study of historic Lithia Springs structures at the site showed they have been damaged by shooters. Early Ashlanders pumped lithium-laced water from the site to town in a failed venture to turn Ashland into a world class mineral water resort. Historic preservation consultant George Kramer, who conducted that study for the city, recommended putting up signs to warn shooters that crumbling concrete structures at the site are historic. He also said targets should be kept at least 50 feet away from structures. The City Council directed the gun club to work with Kramer to develop measures to address concerns raised in the historic study. Vickie Aldous is a reporter for the Ashland Daily Tidings. She can be reached at [email protected]. News In Photos Loading ...