新媒网 · 跨境数据社区

Since water quality is fresh on your minds due to the recent boil notice, I’m sure you’ll appreciate this episode of pure absurdity. In early-mid 2017, the Victoria County Sheriff’s Office built a shooting range abutting the Saxet Lakes NW of Patriot Park with little fanfare or public scrutiny. It turns out that the range, which likely absorbs well over a million rounds of lead ammunition every year, was built in the floodplain and is a mere 70 feet from the banks of the lakes. The base of the range sits at around 50ft in elevation which is 5-6ft below the floodplain level for that area. In late-August 2017, it was inundated with an estimated 8-9ft of rushing flood water from Hurricane Harvey, and some of the original berms were severely eroded. It now has 8 years of lead accumulation just waiting to be washed into the river, onto surrounding farm land, and further afield in the water table. But the immediate, ongoing threat lies in the extreme soil contamination leaching into the water table that supplies many surrounding residential water wells. The fragmentation and abrasion that occurs upon a bullet impacting soil creates an untold number of particles with exponentially-more chemically-reactive surface area than the original round, which makes groundwater leaching a near certainty. To illustrate the contamination potential of just one round, the Environmental Working Group claims, “A single shot from a 30-30 Winchester containing 8.1 grams of lead could contaminate about 370 cubic feet of soil to Superfund site contamination levels (the equivalent of about 56 bathtubs filled with Superfund site dirt).” [Article: “Lead Pollution at Outdoor Firing Ranges”] Now, scale that up by millions and imagine it concentrated in a single 120ft-long pile of dirt waiting to be spread along the river basin in the next flood while constantly leaching into the groundwater beneath. This issue was passed onto me by a concerned citizen who has exhausted his options for reporting this potential disaster to governmental entities, including getting a pass-the-buck response from TCEQ, which seems to be their typical mode of operation regarding government activities. After much open-meeting urging from the concerned citizen, the entity ultimately responsible—the Victoria County Commissioners Court—approved a lead study which was conducted on 4/12/2025. They claimed the results came back as satisfactory and considered it a closed issue. The study tells a different story. The contracted soil testing company took 21 samples in and around the berms at the range. The berm that gets the most action came back with a lead concentration of 3,770ppm (1 part lead for every 265 parts). For reference and scale, the EPA considers 100-200ppm of lead “acceptable” for residential soil. There is no acceptable level of lead in the blood, and the miniscule amount of 50ppb (0.05ppm) is cause for health intervention. Granted, the berm isn’t being used for residential purposes or playgrounds, but there are at least 20 water wells within a mile of the range with the closest being only 1,800ft away. A recreational lake is only 70ft away and the river is 1.2 miles away. These aren’t great distances for surface water to cover nor are they impossible distances for groundwater to cover. Only one sample was taken from the hottest berm. We think the berm needs to be sampled in several spots to get more reliable data. There may be areas with far higher concentrations. The purpose of this post is to increase exposure to put pressure on the County to cease operations at the shooting range and remediate the contaminated soil to avoid further erosion and leaching. A shooting range simply doesn’t belong in a flood plain or near bodies of water that are regularly fished and skied in. And this doesn't even consider the legality or prudence of building 10-12ft berms that can exacerbate upstream flooding. I’ve included some visuals in the comments to support these claims and have uploaded the soil study PDF to a secure file-sharing site (Mega) for you to evaluate for yourselves. (see link in the comments) I’ve also included contact info for all members of the Commissioners Court. They need to hear from you! The owners of the surrounding wells should also be made aware of the lead source near their homes and over their water table. Speaking of flooding, we have a few more water-related issues up the pipe that were also being addressed by our concerned citizen. STAY TUNED! Please share this post widely and follow us for more.