didn't they have to pass a dec environmental impact study before they opened??? if so... case closed.
Posted on 07/20/2005 10:28:54 AM PDT by 2nd amendment mama
A group of homeowners who live near a gun club have standing to sue the club for dumping lead and other ammunition-related pollutants into the surrounding area, a Connecticut federal court has ruled .
The court dismissed one of the homeowners' claims under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, concluding that lead shot is not "hazardous waste" at the time it is discharged from a firearm because it is being used for its intended purpose.
The court's ruling permits the homeowners to press their remaining claims under the RCRA and the Clean Water Act.
The Metacon Gun Club Inc. has operated a shooting range in Simsbury, Conn., for 15 years, court filings say. Members and guests are permitted to use large and small firearms, including shotguns, assault rifles and anti-tank guns at the site. The club borders the Farmington River, as well as a golf course, riding stable and Talcott Mountain State Park.
The Simsbury-Avon Preservation Society LLC, composed of six homeowners who live near the site, claims the gun club causes water and soil contamination from chromium, lead, ammunition fragments and other pollutants. It alleges that "thousands of pounds of lead" were deposited into the environment since 1980 and the area shows a lead presence well above that allowed by state environmental laws.
Simsbury-Avon and its individual members sued Metacon for violations of the RCRA and the CWA. Specifically, it maintains that Metacon violated the RCRA by open dumping lead and lead debris. It further alleges that Metacon, an owner and operator of a waste facility, has engaged in hazardous waste disposal without obtaining a permit from the Environmental Protection Agency or the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.
In addition, Simsbury-Avon claims that Metacon violated the CWA by discharging lead bullets and debris into the Farmington River and its wetlands without an EPA or DEP permit. The homeowners' group has requested declarative and injunctive relief as well as civil penalties of up to $25,000 per day for each RCRA and CWA violation.
Metacon moved to dismiss the claims, arguing that the group lacks standing to sue. Metacon contends that when the suit was filed May 13, 2004, the Simsbury-Avon Preservation Society did not legally exist. Further, the defendant maintains that adding individual plaintiffs does not cure the original defect.
Judge Janet B. Arterton of the U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut disagreed. Although the group was officially incorporated five days after the complaint was filed, Simsbury-Avon and its individual members have standing to sue, she found. The judge noted that the group was a de facto corporation May 11, 2004, when its articles of incorporation were first submitted.
The judge dismissed one of the group's RCRA claims, which asserted that Metacon disposed of hazardous waste without a permit. In so ruling, Judge Arterton relied on a January 2001 EPA publication in which the agency concluded that lead shot is not hazardous waste subject to the RCRA at the time it is discharged from a firearm because it is being used for its intended purpose.
Judge Arterton found the EPA's exclusion of lead shot and bullets from the definition of "solid waste" in the RCRA reasonable.
"At the time a target shooter fires a bullet, the shooter is not intending to 'abandon' the bullet but rather to use it to hit a target. He or she is putting the lead bullet to its intended use," she said.
OK, it is an indoor range...
I wish I could fire off a TOW. Could get a little pricey though. I wonder if you can load your own TOW.
ROTFLMAO.....
didn't they have to pass a dec environmental impact study before they opened??? if so... case closed.
"the motivation of most hackers is not criminal"
The homeowners are basically upset about the noise, so the range should install a steel backdrop to collect spent rounds. Make it in such a way that the echo will be tenfold the previous noise. The idiots knew there was a shooting range there when they bought the houses!
You can be sure of that. Most lawsuits are LAWYER MOTIVATED, NOT plaintif motivated.
They tried this with a gun club I was a member of. They had a hundred year lease granted in 1910.
They will be gone in 2010 no doubt.
Whatever it takes is whatever they are willing to do.
And they are willing to wait.
....and anti-tank guns at the site.
Wasn't there something in Private Ryan about a sock soaked in oil? What's the fun in that? I'll stick by my Ruger thank you.
" I wonder if you can load your own TOW."
Bookmarking for potential future Darwin Award candidate! ;^)
Indoor ranges collect lead, brass, etc on a regular basis, I'm not sure about outdoor ranges.
I recall hearing about the National Park Service doing some tests on a long established outdoor range in WV. They found no leaching of lead at any level.
(cripes, you can visit any old Civil War battlefield and still find intact bullets.)
So you all helped deposit the "thousands of pounds of lead" they're suing over... ATTA-GIRL! LOL
this makes no sense (post 45), I know. Too much FReeping...going for coffee now...
PRECISELY!!
Second Amendment advocates should demonstrate such ingenuity in advancing our causes.
Oh yeah....and it was so much fun! Probably the most fun ya can have fully clothed....LOL
typical dims.. ban supressors, then complain about noise volumes, forcing us to move further out into the country. the they buy up homes around the area (usally at lower prices due to proximity to gun range) then complain more about the noise. if that doesn't work, the complain about lead pollution, which of course they forced us to use when they outlawed the use of steel.
You really should support your local range. They need the business so that they can stay open.
According to a Scientific American I read several years ago, the increase in ultraviolet exposure would amount to a New Yorker moving to Atlanta.
Hardly something to get fizzy over.
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