Bummer. But I understand. I was thinking about the years of lead the last time I was there shooting clays, but it is really a beautiful place to shoot. Now I'm stuck with Livermore's ugly field, or Coyote Clays..which is very nice..but very far.

This will not be the last gun club to be shut down. Get rid of the gun clubs, gets rid of the guns?

No Charlie. Get rid of lead, not guns. Go kick some football! Your gun rights are sage...we just don't want your lead in our ground water ala Flint.

Perhaps I missed it, does anyone have a source of actual report(s) that show lead in fact got into either the ground water or Lake Chabot?

Unfortunately, it really isn't a question of if, but when. Whatever level of contamination is in groundwater and Lake Chabot now will increase over time as the leaching that began over 50 years ago continues. Even if all of the metal waste miraculously disappeared today the dissolved lead that has already soaked into the ground and made it's way toward the lake will continue along that path with each new rain.
To have zero dissolved lead in the groundwater or lake there would have to be no corrosion of the metal exposed to the elements over 52 years and no runoff from rain contacting the corroded metal.

The toxic properties of lead have been known for decades, what had the Chabot Gun club done about cleaning up it's mess? Nothing. According to the Contra Costa Times: "It would cost some $2.4 million to $3.4 million to make improvements, plus another $190,000 a year in operating costs to keep the range open..." Web Link The Chabot Gun club contributes about $80,000 per year to the park (same article). The question is why has the park deferred to the club for so long? "Each additional year of shooting will cost at least $200,000 to clean up – costs that will fall upon the park district and the East Bay taxpayers who support it." Web Link
Lake Chabot is an emergency water supply for us. The club has had years to show a little responsibility. In my opinion the park has been handing taxpayers the bill for years to indulge the club. Enough is enough.

The lead is 15 times the amount that it should be in some places. when it rains it is worse. the range master deals in cash when he can so he really does not report all the money he brings in. the range is a nonprofit that brings in more than $400,000 per year ( public record). just look at the place, its all run down because he will not invest in the up keep. hell I would rather pee in the dirt than use the rest rooms there.

My wife and I love to take our 12 grandchildren for hikes throughout the Oakland Hills. With gun shooting concentrated at Chabot we feel safe.

If Chabot shooting range closes where does the District think those thousands of shooters are going out on their own to shoot? Right...the Oakland hills. (That is what my father and I did back in the 1940's).

I do not feel safe with the District turning lose thousands of shooters. That is going to virtually shut down the Oakland hills for hiking right after the first hiker becomes victimized by random shooting.

Personally, I am not as worried about the lead bullets in the ground at Chabot as I am of lead bullets whizzing over my head in the Oakland hills.

George

Target shooters are for the most part extremely law abiding. Land in Oakland hills today is either privately owned or under the jurisdiction of the country and/or regional parks, and it's very unlikely those "thousands" of people will just pull up on the side of Redwood road or walk off a hiking trail and plink soda cans. It's not the 1940s anymore. I think you will find that since the 1940s many new laws have been put in place and believe it or not, people observe them.

Please check the regulations on the books first, before you do something illegal. You may even receive a jay walking ticket on park roads if you are not careful.

I'd like to thanks 'BeFair' and 'I know ...' for injecting some actual facts into the routine paranoia of the Town Square.

It's pretty simple, really. The Gun Club wasn't paying the full cost of its operation, because it never took steps to address ('internalize') the costs of cleaning-up its pollution. If it had, it would have had to significantly increase its prices -- not clear whether it would be a viable service under those circs. Not much different than a battery-maker discharging waste lead into a river -- it's wrong.

Charlie, you give gunners a bad name, and me the heebie-jeebies.