Indoor shooting range near Bellingham on track to open this year
Indoor shooting is expected to return later this year at the Plantation Rifle Range, a public facility operated by Whatcom County that has been closed for more than three years.
A $1.7 million project to replace the indoor range’s roof and its heating, ventilation and air-conditioning system is nearing completion, and a September opening is planned, Whatcom County Parks and Recreation Department officials told the County Council this week in an update on progress at the facility.
That is good news for handgun shooters and the law enforcement agencies that used the indoor range for training before it closed in June 2021.
However, the outdoor pistol, rifle and trap ranges will stay closed indefinitely as the Parks and Recreation Department and the state Department of Ecology move forward on a $14 million project to remove lead and other contaminants that bullets have left in the ground over five decades.
Approximately 3-6 tons of lead has built up since the ranges opened in 1971, according to previous Herald reporting. Arsenic was found at higher-than-expected levels in groundwater but might be naturally occurring, park operations manager Christ Thomsen told the council in a committee presentation Tuesday morning.
Cleanup could take several years, the Whatcom County Council learned. Initial estimates three years ago put the price tag at $655,000, and work was expected to b.e complete in 2023. Costs are being covered by Ecology grants and local Real Estate Excise Tax, and county officials are looking for other grants and loans.
Thomsen said that Whatcom County and state Ecology officials are in the early part of a “step-by-step” process to identify contaminants and plan for their removal and eventual site restoration.
“So far we have completed the initial investigation and site assessment phases, and right now we’re in the remedial investigation phase. And what that really mean is that we are continuing to study the site, but in more detail,” Thomsen told the council.
Members of the public will have a chance to comment during the process, he said.
Plantation Rifle Range, east of Lake Padden at 5102 Samish Way, is one of only two public gun ranges in the state.
Whatcom County leases the 60-acre site, a former tree plantation, for $4,000 per year from Bertch Timberlands, LLC.
The range was generating more than $250,000 annually before it closed, Parks and Recreation Department Director Bennett Knox said.
Thomsen said Whatcom County failed to remove lead from the soil periodically, allowing a buildup of toxic materials that forced its shutdown in November 2022.
“(Lead cleanup) is a routine practice at many ranges. In our situation, that is something that the county did not do. And so, because (lead) wasn’t collected and recycled, it becomes a dangerous waste if you allow it to accumulate in the environment. And so that’s what got the county in this position. In its entire 50-plus years of operations, lead was not collected from the environment,” Thomsen said.
Christa Colouzis, section manager for Ecology’s northwest regional office, said several shooting ranges around the state are in a similar situation.
“You’re not alone. Other ranges are having the exact same issue. Now it is time to pay the piper, time to get things fixed,” Colouzis said.
She said that a cheaper option would be to conduct a “partial cleanup” and keep operating as a shooting range.
The area is considered a hazardous waste landfill because toxic material is being stored on the ground. Colouzis said an acceptable level of lead is five parts per million, and some locations at the range have levels 92 times higher than that.
So far testing of the soil, creek and wetlands shows that contamination is not being found off site, including nearby residential wells and Lake Samish, Thomsen said.
Cleanup will involve removing contaminated soil and trucking it to a special facility that handles toxic waste, he said.
