Chabot Gun Club – necessary closure, unnecessary delay
By Ilana DeBare
The East Bay Regional Park District board made a welcome decision on Tuesday to shut down the Chabot Gun Club, which has been leaching toxic lead into the watershed of Lake Chabot.
But the board, apparently trying to placate gun owners, gave the club a full year to shut down – six months more than was recommended by park district staff, and far more time than is necessary.
“It’s a sign of progress that the gun range’s days are now finally numbered,’ said Golden Gate Bird Alliance Director Cindy Margulis. “However, it’s regrettable that the District’s Board is effectively allowing this public health menace to continue for an entire year.”
The gun range’s lease expired in January 2015 and the EBRPD board granted it an extension until January 2016, then another extension through the end of this month. With this week’s vote, the range can continue operating through March 2017 but then must close.
Park neighbors, park users, and conservation groups including GGBA and Sierra Club have been urging the district to close the range because of its toxic lead pollution and noise issues.
Debris at Chabot Gun Club / Photo by gritphilm (Creative Commons)
Male Bald Eagle at Lake Chabot / Photo by Mary Malec
Lead was not commonly seen as a health danger when the range opened in 1963, but today it is well documented as causing anemia, brain damage, neurological disorders, kidney damage, reproductive disorders in humans as well as wildlife. In addition to being a popular site for hiking and picnicking, and a home to many wild species including Bald Eagles, Lake Chabot is an emergency drinking water source for the East Bay.
The cost of cleaning up past lead pollution from the gun range is estimated at between $2 million and $20 million. 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.
“We had been asking them to shut down in under six months,” said Pam Young, chair of GGBA’s East Bay Conservation Committee. “Those previous extensions provided plenty of time for the club to make plans for closure. The longer it goes on, the greater the cost and the greater the harm.”
Both Young and Margulis testified at the EBRPD hearing yesterday, and GGBA board members emailed the park district board this week pressing for a final and speedy closure.…

Black Phoebe landing on a rock by Bob Lewis
Common Loon feeding young in British Columbia, by Bob Lewis
Bob (left) leads a class field trip to Coyote Hills in 2013, by Ilana DeBare
An almost National Geographic moment with Snowy Egrets on Alcatraz, by Bonnie Brown
Fashionable docent attire!


