Williamson gun range has built up 18,000 pounds of lead. Now it's a hazard.

Elaina Sauber | The Tennessean

When Sgt. Denny Elliott took over as the range master of the Williamson County Sheriff's Office gun range five years ago, there was a lot of work to be done.

Eleven of the range's 16 lanes were functional. A broken drainage system left standing water around the lead-packed range, creating a ripe breeding ground for mosquitoes and increasing the risk of water contamination.

The veteran law enforcement officer has managed to have some of those problems addressed.

But the sheriff's office is still awaiting funding for one issue at the range.

The backstop berm - the raised strip of land behind the targets that catches all the bullets fired - is packed with lead. The department has been asking Williamson County Commission for the funding needed to remove the lead since 2015. The funding has never been approved.

With the funding the department has received, it has gone to pay for new positions and equipment to keep deputies safe - both of which have been a higher priority than addressing the lead.

"You're only given so much money, and that might not fit into the amount you're given by the commission," Sheriff Jeff Long said.

Neither Long nor Elliott are aware of any previous professional lead removal from the gun range.

That means bullets from the mid-1980s, when the range was created, are still likely embedded in the berm, raising concerns in the department about potential lead contamination to the environment over time.

The National Rifle Association recommends lead removal from gun ranges every one to five years.

The sheriff's office $90,000 capital project request doesn't mince words.

"This is a health and environmental issue," it says.

The bottom of the request suggests the department won't receive the money this year, either.

"ROLL TO 2019/20."

County Commissioner Jennifer Mason, who sits on the the board's Law Enforcement/Public Safety Committee, said the department was asked to trim down its budget next year, which was why it was rolled over to the next fiscal year.

18,000 pounds of lead

In 2016, Metals Treatment Technologies, a Colorado-based environmental remediation firm, completed a budgetary proposal for the sheriff's office to better gauge how much lead may be packed into the gun range and how much it could cost to remove.

Since lead can be resold, the vendor would recycle what's taken from the range and pay the county for the salvage value of the lead.

"It started at about $62,000. They estimated at the time they could probably recover up to about nine tons of lead, based off the range and size of the agency," Elliott said.

Nine tons equates to 18,000 pounds of lead.

Since then, the price of recycled lead has gone down, which means the department has had to ask for more money to cover the removal.

Metals Treatment Technologies was contracted by the Shelby County Sheriff's Office in 2013 to remove lead-contaminated soil from a former shotgun training range. The firm was paid $63,000 for the work.

'The range was a swamp'

As he stands along the base of the berm, Elliott pulls out his knife and gently digs into the sandy surface. “That’s lead,” he says as a few bits of rubble emerge.

Elliott believes the environmental risks that accompany the lead-laden berm far outweigh the health risks.

He estimates about 200,000 rounds of ammunition are shot into the berm every year.

The United States Environmental Protection Agency in 2005 released its 103-page "Best Management Practices for Lead at Outdoor Shooting Ranges," which provides remedies range owners can use to help minimize the effects of lead on the environment.

Lead shot is not considered a hazardous waste subject to the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act because it's used for its intended purpose at the time it's discharged from a firearm, according to the EPA. That means outdoor gun ranges aren't legally viewed as generators of "hazardous waste" and don't need to obtain any environmental permits to operate.

However, gun ranges are still subject to litigation to compel a cleanup of lead if there's a belief that it poses harm to public health or the environment. Gun ranges that have never removed spent bullets are more likely to be sued, according to the EPA report.

The National Rifle Association recommends professional lead removal from outdoor gun ranges every one to five years, even for ranges with minimal use, the report says.

The biggest potential environmental issues can arise if lead particles are moved off-site by storm water runoff, or if dissolved lead migrates through the soil to the groundwater beneath.

The sheriff's office adopted one of those best practices in the last two years by applying more than 80 tons of sand to the berm to help it better absorb bullets.

"(The sand) doesn't necessarily erode and fall out. If it's put in correctly, it's gonna give you a quick capture. And, you have less airborne particulate that escapes than off the clay-based soil we have," Elliott said.

But the sand doesn't eliminate the risks that come with shooting into a berm already packed with lead.

"Continued use of the trap, without removing the lead, may result in an increased risk of ricocheting off the backstop and thus creating an increased safety hazard," the EPA report says.

The department may have also dodged a bullet by improving the drainage system at the range over the past two years.

"Five years ago when I came into this position, the range was a swamp. There was not good drainage here. We found out we had some drains that were clogged, that collapsed," Elliott said.

As they worked to replace target stands, department employees discovered a concrete trench filled with rocks and standing water.

"When there's water standing, is lead leeching into it? That's always the concern there," Elliott said.

The department relied on volunteer labor to excavate and improve the drainage system, which runs along the target holders in front of the berm.

At one time, there was a creek, named on maps as Swanson Branch, that ran through a corner of the gun range. It flowed into Saw Mill Creek, which empties into the Harpeth River.

Swanson Branch has since dried up.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation has never monitored the gun range for lead, said spokeswoman Kim Schofinski. That can only be done with the county's permission.

"We are able to provide technical assistance regarding remediation activities with the county's request," Schofinski said in an email.

While he's six months from retirement, Elliott is still pushing for the money needed to remove lead from the range. Lead removal, he said, is the only - and most important - improvement to the range that he hasn't been able to do.

Why should residents care? Because the issue's not going away, Elliott says.

The number of WCSO employees has increased 30 percent over the past decade to keep up with the county's population increase, he said. That means the gun range is being used more than ever.

"We want to make sure there's nothing out there that's going to cause an issue (and) slow down training for these folks," he said. "If we do have some kind of toxicity...and it shuts down this facility, the men and women who train here are not going to have a place to train. That spills over when these folks have to go out and protect the public."

Elliott said he wants to make sure the range never poses a public hazard.

"I feel like I’ve got the first line of responsibility for that," he said.

'It can be a very hazardous problem'

While the risks of lead exposure are far greater at indoor gun ranges due to less air circulation and ventilation, outdoor ranges can pose their own risks to people who use them - and their families.

Users can bring lead home on their clothing and shoes, putting children and pets at risk.

"When you're dealing with your clothing from the range, don't be trekking across the floor of your house where the kids are crawling, because it can affect them a lot worse and a lot faster, with a lot less material," Elliott said.

The sheriff's office doesn't have any formal policies in place that dictate how to minimize lead exposure, but Elliott said he pushes common-sense best practices on training deputies and instructors.

Most importantly, wash your hands anytime you use the range.

He tells other training instructors to use a specific pair of shoes when using the range, wash the clothes they wore while shooting in a separate load, and ask their physicians to test their blood lead levels at their annual physicals.

"For folks coming and going two or three days a year, they're not gonna get enough exposure," Elliott said. "Lead exposure is predominantly a problem when you're exposed over and over."

As the range master, Elliott spends more time at the range than anyone else at the department - and his blood lead levels have never been above normal, he said.

Employees are also at a lower risk for lead exposure after concrete was poured over most of the range's surface in January. They can use a specialized tool to sweep up casings off the hard surface without touching them.

Previously, employees had to pick up most of those casings by hand.

"It helps that we can recover spent brass better, where in the past, not so much," Elliott said. "In the grassy areas, you could dig down six inches and be finding brass. We've been trying to make grass grow ever since, and we just couldn't. It's because the ground is full of brass, and that brass has some lead in it."

But even the grass that's left at the range tends to glitter with bullet casings that weren't picked up. Those have to be collected by hand, and employees don't always wear gloves when doing it, Elliott said.

That can increase risks of exposure, said Chuck Kardous, a senior research engineer with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

"Sometimes you'll see people picking up spent bullets off the ground and putting them in a bucket, or going down the range and cleaning with their bare hands," Kardous said in a phone interview. "These kinds of practices we obviously do not recommend, because they will carry lead on them. Unless they have a very good hygiene program, it can be a very hazardous problem."

Effects of lead exposure

On children:

Brain and nervous system damage

Behavior and learning problems

Slowed growth

Hearing problems and headaches

Impairment of vision and motor skills

On adults:

Problems during pregnancy

Reproductive problems in men and women

High blood pressure

Digestive problems

Neurological disorders

Memory and concentration problems

Muscle and joint pain

Kidney problems

Reach Elaina Sauber at esauber@tennessean.com, 615-571-1172 or follow @ElainaSauber on Twitter.