Non-point source pollution assessment at a small arms firing range
- Army Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Medicine, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (United States)
The U.S. Department of Defense manages many small arms firing ranges where personnel fire pistols and rifles. Bullets imbed and accumulate in sand berms behind targets. Many decades of storm water runoff may have transported heavy metals from bullets into the surrounding area. Determining the heavy metal migration potential at these ranges is a problem because little information exists on heavy metal transport from bullets into the surrounding environmental media. In a proactive approach to the 1987 Clean Water Act, the U.S. Army is assessing the environment at some of its ranges for non-point-source-pollution potential. Onsite testing was conducted for heavy metals in soil, surface water, sediment, and ground water at one small arms range. Copper, lead, and zinc were found above ecological criteria levels in surface water and above background in the sediment at the site. Antimony, copper, lead, and zinc were found above background levels in the surficial soil on and around the sand berms. No metals leached to ground water. Results indicate that heavy metal migration at the range appears to be in localized areas only and is associated with the sand berms. The sand berms are the source of significant concentrations of lead, copper, and other heavy metals from bullets. Copper and lead in the surface water, sediment, and surficial soil have been transported and deposited as much as 100 feet from the berms. Heavy metal migration appears to be controlled more by surface transport processes (rainfall/snowmelt runoff, erosion and deposition) than by subsurface leaching.
- OSTI ID:
- 416894
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-951023--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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