BANG!
The sky is falling! Run away! Lead is in dirt! Oh my God, how can we permit LEAD in DIRT!!!!???? Oh, the HUMANITY!
Posted on 03/19/2004 10:02:42 AM PST by neverdem
A bill that would prevent state regulators from filing environmental lawsuits against sport-shooting ranges, where lead bullets can accumulate and potentially contaminate groundwater, took another step forward Thursday in the Florida Senate.
The bill (SB 1156) now requires range owners and operators to use best management practices suggested by the Department of Environmental Protection to ease any environmental degradation.
By following these guidelines, ranges would be exempt from regulators' lawsuits.
"Florida will hold out a carrot, and that carrot is your compliance with best management practices," said Sen. Rod Smith, D-Alachua.
The DEP would have until next January to make an effort to ensure all ranges had copies of the best management practices, and ranges would then have a year to comply.
Under previous versions of this bill, the state would have had to clean up any damage found at Florida's more than 400 ranges.
Lawmakers had considered taxing gun licenses to create a trust fund to cover those costs, but the Senate Committee on Appropriations didn't consider a bill (SB 2364) that would have created that fund.
Smith said the charges would have unjustly burdened law enforcement officials, corrections officers and others who need to carry weapons.
Instead, ranges that follow suggested practices would work with the state to cover any necessary environmental cleanup costs. The bill does not specify who would pay to clean up ranges that went bankrupt.
"Ranges have always been responsible for environmental cleanup. It's no different than you raking leaves in your back yard," said Marion Hammer, lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.
The bill doesn't offer ranges blanket immunity. Clubs that don't follow practices wouldn't be protected from regulators, and neighbors affected by lead leeching into groundwater still could sue the clubs.
"Florida will hold out a carrot, and that carrot is your compliance with best management practices."
hhhhhhhhhh Sen. Rod Smith D-Alachua
Gee, why can't we use copper jacket steel.
Oh, silly me, those are Cop Killers (which have never killed a cop)
The sky is falling! Run away! Lead is in dirt! Oh my God, how can we permit LEAD in DIRT!!!!???? Oh, the HUMANITY!
R.F.E. list PING.
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