After 50 years of shooting, Plantation Rifle Range will remove 3-6 tons of lead

BELLINGHAM – The Plantation Rifle Range will close its high-power range Nov. 1 to remove 3-6 tons of lead, according to Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Operations Manager Christ Thomsen.

Bullets have piled up in the more than 50 years the range has been open and the lead left behind is now an environmental health hazard.

“In 2020, the Department of Ecology visited the range and took surface water samples that indicated the presence of lead above Clean Water Act standards for aquatic life in freshwater systems. Starting in 2020, Whatcom County began conducting monthly surface water sampling at Plantation Range. In 2021, the Department of Ecology returned and took soil samples from the range floor. These samples confirmed the presence of lead,” Thomsen told the Bellingham Herald in an email.

While the amount of lead is above the Clean Water Act standards for aquatic life, the tests have not shown the levels to be dangerous to humans and are below the standard for drinking water.

Expected cost of the project is $655,000, and the work should be finished sometime in 2023. This is the first time the lead has been removed since the range opened in 1971.

The range, at 5102 Samish Way in Bellingham, is owned and operated by Whatcom County on land leased from Bertch Timberlands. It is one of two public gun ranges in Washington.

Thomsen said the county plans to reopen the range after the cleanup. But the county also plans to analyze the cost/benefit of reopening with stricter regulations in the future.