Lead can be toxic! Lead contaminates air, soil, water, wildlife, and people. The hazards of lead at an outdoor shooting range are very complex and astute range owners and managers will bring in a respected firing range services contractor to help implement a smart plan of action. The direct exposure of lead to the environment creates varied sources of lead contamination. Lead removal includes both recently spent bullets and “historic lead”. Historic lead is lead left in the ground for a period of time throughout the history of the range. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), lead reclamation at an outdoor shooting range has 4 major steps:
After the reclamation, proactively sustaining the range’s environmental and regulatory status requires a plan. The EPA recommends an Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP); a regulatory compliant plan that protects wildlife and natural resources. Recently a news story came out about Pacific Rod and Gun Club in California who lost a long court battle regarding cleaning up lead impacted materials on their range. This highlights the need to keep ranges under a lead management plan and to avoid shooting into open water bodies. Contact MT2 for a free assessment and recommendations for lead reclamation Best Management Practices. Avoid becoming another closed club and part of a multi-million dollar cleanup!! MUST #1: Shooting ranges MUST comply with all lead laws and regulations. These laws are strictly enforced and violating them can result in range closures, heavy fines, and even jail time. MUST #2: You MUST minimize all threats from lead hazards during reclamation, remediation, and beyond. Remediation of lead can introduce additional lead exposures and hazards. During the entire reclamation process and beyond, it is important to
Must #3: You MUST have a Health and Safety Plan (HASP) Compliant and safe shooting range lead reclamation requires highly trained, certified contractors with specialized equipment. It is imperative to hire a contractor who understands and institutes a comprehensive Health and Safety Plan (HASP) that is specific to your site. A proper HASP ensures protection of wildlife, soil, water, and people throughout the reclamation process. A properly executed HASP that is RCRA and Clean Water Act (CWA) compliant, also protects range owners from potential liabilities. A solid HASP can be established after an on-site inspection determines necessary reclamation steps specific to your range. A HASP will include steps such as
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) and the Occupational Safety and Health Agency (OSHA) partnered with the National Shooting Sports to create the Lead Management and OSHA Compliance for Indoor Shooting Ranges. The plan outlines maintenance considerations for indoor ranges:
Lead-contaminated ventilation filters are considered hazardous and require regulatory-compliant disposal.
Cleaning a bullet trap typically requires additional controls, training, and PPE.
Lead-contaminated waste water, PPE slated for disposal, and HEPA filters are considered hazardous and require regulatory-compliant disposal.
Lead-contaminated filters are considered hazardous and require regulatory-compliant disposal.
Lead-contaminated waste water is considered hazardous and requires regulatory-compliant disposal.
* Recordkeeping and retention either required by law or strongly advised. Protect yourself and the range: Keep thorough records. You’ve read about the hazards of lead (Pb). You have a responsibility to manage these hazards at a shooting range and feel ready to begin an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP) that protects and conserves resources from those lead hazards. You’re finally ready to clean up the shooting range! A comprehensive Health and Safety Plan (HASP) is essential when removing lead! Along with protecting consumers and workers, a through and well-executed HASP also helps to assure regulatory compliance to avoid inadvertent environmental damage and potential hefty legal sanctions. Range clean-up may involve water and soil remediation first; then a plan to safely recover and reclaim spent bullets once that remediation is complete. Did you know? OSHA Standard 29 CFR 1926.62(g)(2)(vi) requires that an employer give written notification to the laundry service if laundry is potentially contaminated with lead! MT2 is well known industry wide for being the nation’s #1 largest professional provider of the full scale of outdoor/indoor range environmental and maintenance services; proven at over 2,000 ranges in all 50 states from our nationwide office network. Including our comprehensive OSHA training program, knowledge of EPA regulations and our “Never Generate Hazardous Waste Guarantee. Specializing in: Lead: Reclamation, Screening & Treatment to MAXIMIZE Your Lead Value! Environmental: EPA & OSHA Consulting; Remediation Maintenance: Filters/Ventilation, Rubber, Traps, Decontamination Construction: Renovation, Design/Build, Improvements, Closure. Get a FREE quote for your Range Maintenance and Environmental Management at the BEST VALUE with the LOWEST RISK! Read other posts like this one..
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Lead must be responsibly handled and disposed of at EPA-approved disposal sites. How shooting range owners dispose of their lead is crucial to their operational planning, OSHA and EPA compliance and the health of their staff and customers. MT2, the nation’s largest firing range lead reclamation and maintenance contractor, was asked by the NSSF to contribute to a series of educational articles and videos on this critical topic for firing range owners on their newly designed website www.nssf.org. The first topic covered is titled: “How to Manage Your Lead Reclamation” by James M. Barthel, CEO of MT2 includes important considerations including: “What is My Lead Waste?”
“We are proud to come alongside the NSSF to help educate firing range owners and operators understand how to not only comply with the law, but also protect their shooters, employees and community,” stated James Barthel, MT2 CEO. “We are passionate about gun range operational safety, lead management and cleanup, protecting our environment and protecting people from the hazards of lead. MT2 is well known industry wide for being the nation’s #1 largest professional provider of the full scale of outdoor/indoor range environmental and maintenance services; We deliver our valued clients the fully integrated combination of design and build services best suited for their needs involving additional expert partner firms where beneficial and based on our industry leading know-how. So, whether a range owner desires a simple cleaning and lead reclamation or a full-scale Project and Construction Management for upgrade, renovation or new build or anything in between they have access to a single integrated best-value provider.” Focused on helping firing range owners and managers who face the problem of understanding the complex compliance requirements to adhere to OSHA regulations and environmental requirements for lead management and containment, future topics to be covered include titles such as:
About MT2: MT2 is the #1 largest most cost-effective nationwide indoor & outdoor firing range lead reclamation & maintenance contractor providing the highest value for your recycled lead; having provided professional, cost-effective and high-integrity solutions to over 2,000 public and private indoor and outdoor firing ranges for military, law enforcement and municipalities nationwide in all 50 States since 2000. Specializing in:
No one reclaims more lead or finishes a project faster than MT2. NEVER Generate Hazardous Waste GUARANTEED! Read other posts like this one..
The post MT2 Announces Thought-Leadership Article Series for the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) on the Topic of Firing Range Maintenance & Lead Reclamation. appeared first on MT2.com | Firing Range Lead Reclamation & Environmental Remediation Services. from http://mt2.com/blog/3506-mt2-announces-thought-leadership-article-series-national-shooting-sports-foundation-nssf-topic-firing-range-maintenance-lead-reclamation/ Hello! Outdoor firing range here. So, you want to protect me from the dangerous effects of lead contamination? Good move! Protecting me protects YOU! I don’t want to poison you, but leaving spent bullets behind can cause potentially toxic lead to leech into the ground or otherwise leave me. The lead may contaminate my soil and my water. This may impact my wildlife and humans too, or impact my neighbors. You can possibly get an acute (sudden) toxic dose of lead or suffer permanent health effects over time. The thing is, it doesn’t have to be this way because lead poisoning is preventable! To stay safe, you must clean me up and keep me clean. To do this, you need a responsible, ongoing management plan also known as an Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP). I’ve compiled some basic information to get your started! Throughout the last 20 years, we have begun to see the effects of mass pollution all around us. Poisonous waterways, species extinction, and new forming health problems are arising from human caused pollution in the natural environment. Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP) involves taking the necessary steps in removing and reducing waste, pollution, and any occupational health and safety hazard that may be present in order to protect everyone and the environment around us. One area of human activity that needs improving is the potential lead contamination at firing ranges. According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation, lead can be a harmful metal if inhaled or ingested. An interesting fact is that lead is found in ammunition, used in the primer. When a bullet is discharged from a gun, heat is created. This converts the lead from a solid to airborne particles that can be breathed in, entering the lungs to be absorbed into the bloodstream. After continuous exposure, lead poisoning is a risk. Another place lead accumulates in your firing range is at backstops. Everyone should consider proper monitoring and maintenance at both indoor and outdoor firing ranges, and don’t worry, learning how to set up easy protocols is very simple. An ESP can give you the guidelines for protection you need to keep everyone safe and help the environment in return. The benefits to consider when deciding whether this pertains to you include the following.
It is much simpler and less expensive to commit to environmental awareness and employ conservation measures before you are sanctioned. Proactive conservation is easier and more economical than clean-up after contamination; known as remediation. It is much less complex and less expensive to achieve and maintain voluntary regulatory compliance before you are penalized and forced to comply. Did you know the EPA has a list of fugitives? I know, right? I didn’t either! It makes sense! There are laws to protect our environment. I guess we’d better get started! First,
Everyone can be educated about lead. Many of these teaching tools I found are reproducible and free!
Also…be sure any contractors/engineers you employ have valid, appropriate certifications! Get creative! Recycling or reusing spent lead may help the range from many of the more stringent solid waste restrictions of the EPA’s Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). Search for funding in creative ways. The EPA offers grants for lead cleanup that may help. Keep track! Keep records of your progress; including the money you save by recycling or reusing lead. Awards and recognition do more than feel good; they are tangible evidence of effective management and send a clear message that you care about your employees, taxpayers, and the environment. How to Properly Set Up an Environmental Stewardship Program (ESP) For Your Firing Range The EPA defines environmental stewardship as “the responsibility for environmental quality shared by all those whose actions affect the environment”. Because the earth is a finite resource, and many of the things we do can contaminate it, protecting both the environment and our fellow humans who live here is an important task. Why Is an ESP Important for A Firing Range? Firing ranges are in a unique place to be environmental stewards, largely because of huge potential for lead pollution that go hand in hand with ranges. “An environmental stewardship program is a written plan or “roadmap” for planning, implementing and monitoring the progress of environmental improvements at shooting ranges,” according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection. This holds true for other states as well. This plan would include proper characterization of your site, as well as implementing various management techniques. Site Characterization To properly set up an ESP, several things must be taken into consideration. These include:
Management Techniques Properly managing a firing range can make environmental stewardship easy. The following management techniques should be employed for a successful ESP:
MT2 is well known industry wide for being the nation’s #1 largest professional provider of the full scale of outdoor/indoor range environmental and maintenance services; proven at over 2,000 ranges in all 50 states from our nationwide office network. Including our comprehensive OSHA training program, knowledge of EPA regulations and our “Never Generate Hazardous Waste Guarantee. Specializing in: Lead: Reclamation, Screening & Treatment to MAXIMIZE Your Lead Value! Environmental: EPA & OSHA Consulting; Remediation Maintenance: Filters/Ventilation, Rubber, Traps, Decontamination Construction: Renovation, Design/Build, Improvements, Closure. Get a FREE quote for your Range Maintenance and Environmental Management at the BEST VALUE with the LOWEST RISK! Read other posts like this one..
The post Considerations for Starting an Environmental Stewardship Program for Your Firing Range appeared first on MT2.com | Firing Range Lead Reclamation & Environmental Remediation Services. from http://mt2.com/blog/firing-ranges/3399-considerations-starting-environmental-stewardship-program-firing-range/ |
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May 2019
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