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.
It's all just a back-door effort to make us go away. Fat chance of that happening. That's why we fight them every day in every way!
Winchester now makes No Lead ammo.
Not sure if that applies to anti-tank stuff though. :)
Bookmarking for potential future Darwin Award candidate! ;^)
Just as long as I stay far enough away from the water heater, I should be ok.
>> judge will probably just pass a law exempting the cops, they can do that now.
Try and buy a box of black talons without a badge.
yeah. they've already got the front door blocked (nfa restricted silencers, AP-ammo bans) now they're coming from behind using other agencies as their clout since they're running low on things they can do themselves.
if this doesn't work, next will be eminent domain. (altho i don't know how they'd be able to put up anything on this "lead polluted" area)
Yeah, they'll probably take the land by eminent domain then sue the "former owner" to pay for the cleanup! They're all scum!
Probably does ... tungsten or tungsten carbide.
i see a lot of it on gunbroker. looks like it goes $40/ 50rds but its there.
Plus, have you ever tried to dissolve lead in water? Try it sometime. ;)
Actually, in the case of lead pipes, they are no longer approved for plumbing for potable weater because tap water from some aquifers, depending on the ph of the water, can leach lead from the interior walls of the pipe, especially when the water sits in the pipe due to infrequent use. Where you have free lead in the soil, down range at a gun club, I doubt that the leaching of lead from the slugs by rainwater or groundwater would be a measurable problem. I think the tree huggers are nuts on this one.
Nope. There are people out there with stuff like 37 mm AT guns and 20mm AT rifles.
Cool, eh?
Talk about power finger.
I shot a junked school bus with it. Still making me grin.
Make sure they're incorporated and then just declare bankruptcy, which is the plaintiff's goal anyway. Force the gun club into legal bills it can't afford.
They are nuts on the entire RoHS (Reduction of Hazardous Substances) program. They worst are the EU. As a result: Lead solder, Bromine flame retardant, Berylium-Copper, and a number of other things are being phased out. Throw a printed circuit board onto the ground in the woods. Come back in 100 years. It would barely be decomposed. Some small (and I do mean small) portion of the lead would have leached into the soil and dispresed to an immeasurable concentration. The reamining lead, coated with oxide, would not have gone anywhere. The Bromine in the laminate would still be there. Etc.
Oops, I need to keep my enviralist scams straight. :)
how do starfires rate? i've heard they're every bit as good as talons. personally, i'm loaded with gold sabres in the .45 under my bed.
It kind of makes me wonder how Freon damages the ozone layer when it is heavier than air. And, the only way to destroy the ozone layer is to put out the sun.
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