Soil testing not needed at Braman Hill

Leelanau Twp. parks and rec make recommendations for shooting range

The Leelanau Township Parks and Recreation Committee unanimously voted at its Jan. 15 meeting that environmental testing at the Braman Hill Shooting Range in Northport would not be necessary.

The group will be preparing a recommendation based on their findings to submit to the Leelanau Township Board for future use when considering a new and revised agreement with the Northport Sportsman’s Club in the months ahead.

In December, township parks and rec members as well as representatives from the Northport Sportsman’s Club met at Braman Hill shooting range to discuss possible environmental testing with Gosling Czubak Engineering. Since August, the township and Sportsman’s Clubs’ legal counsel has been working to put together a use agreement as they have been unable to find a signed copy of the original one. One of the concerns brought up in recent months was soil testing of the property to ensure there are no traces of lead contamination.

After receiving a report from Jeff Sisma of Gosling Czubak of the projected testing costs and reviewing the information of the property, parks and rec secretary Kristi Holstrom recommended to the board that testing is not necessary and that they don’t move forward with the water testing proposal from Gosling Czubak.

Since the December meeting at Braman Hill, Holstrom said they had the opportunity to look at the kind of water testing done by the village of Northport. Dave Tompkins, village of Northport water operator, helps to monitor the water quality done in town, Holstrom said, explaining that the results from their regular testing was “very encouraging news.”

She also said that the type of soil at the shooting range is considered “glacial till” and is composed of mixed rock of various sizes, and tends to be more composed of alkaline, which helps to remove heavy metals and prevent things from leaching or infiltrating into the groundwater. Soils with a pH level above 7.0 (neutral) are typically low in organic matter, making it ideal soil for a gun range. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), water quality criteria for pH in freshwater suggest a range from 6.5 to 9. The pH level found in the soil at the shooting range was 7, so Holstrom said it was “another bit of encouraging news.”

In addition to the club’s noted commitment historically and currently to good stewardship and best management practices, as well as their expressed willingness to improve on their practices, other encouraging information found to help determine Holstrom’s recommendation includes the low use of the range in general. She said because of this, they don’t have the same challenge of quantity or need for frequency of cleanup like larger shooting ranges. The design and layout of the Northport range is also in an open area and not near wetlands, Holstrom said, unlike other places that shoot over wetlands.

“The proposal was going to have three wells drilled up there and the cost is quite high, I just don’t think it’s warranted. Given all this, I think we are not putting the residence or the environment at risk… I have a lot of confidence that the shooting range is not causing harm to our water supply or environment,” Holstrom said during the meeting. “So for all these reasons and because there is going to be an agreement put into place, the township has an opportunity to support the club in maintaining these practices by kind of holding them accountable, it can be tied to renewals of lease and there can be certain criteria…” Current Northport Sportsman’s Club President Tom Gremel presented the group’s stewardship plan, highlighting many of its improvements to the shooting range as stewards of the land since first being established in 1933. Some of those improvements include the installation of cameras to monitor the premises, the repair of berms, deployment of new waste containers, and the update to the archery course and the range with new targets. The purpose of the club’s environmental stewardship plan, Gremel said, is to “maintain sound management of the ranges used by the club and reduce potential risks to the club and surrounding environment in accordance with provisions of the Michigan sports shooting ranges act...”

“We have been very conservation- minded forever… For example, we did pH testing for the soil out there (the range), and that’s the only test that the EPA recommends that we’ve done, and found that our soil is pretty much ideal,” Gremel said. “... Because our soil is neutral, the lead is just inert and just there. The majority of the lead is contained within the berms, that’s the job of the berm…” Per the EPA guidance, minimizing the mobilization of lead and other potential contaminants is and always has been one of the goals of the club. Gremel said activities to reach that goal include things like monitoring soil pH, lead reclamation as necessary with sporting clay shot fall zones and within the berms, and tracking the number of rounds fired through requiring shooters to report the number of rounds fired. Maintaining mowing frequency of the grass in the shot fall zone is another activity the club will keep up so that when it comes time to reclaim the lead it can be done, as well as removing plastic and clay fragments during the active season as recommended.