A shooting range that has offered public shotgunners a place to shoot since 1977 and has been a practice range for a couple of Olympic shooters has been ordered to shut down indefinitely because of environmental concerns.
Once known as the Miramar Gun Range and is now the site of the San Diego Shotgun Sports Association, the range on the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar was closed by the Marines on Oct. 3 after the Association had voluntarily shut down two fields because of lead shot leaving the range.
“The Marines' environmental department was in San Clemente Canyon at the west end of our range looking for contaminants,” said Robert Keefe, president of the San Diego Shotgun Sports Association, a 501(c)3, nonprofit entity. “They had hard hats on, and their hard hats were peppered with shot from the range. The closure order came from Marine headquarters.”
Keefe said the Marines told him that preliminary soil samples taken by the Marines' environmental department show “substantial amounts of lead on their side of the fence.”
Keefe said he and the association's board of directors are trying to come up with a solution to the problem and hope to meet with the Marines on Thursday.
Compounding the problem is the fact the association's lease with the Marines is up on Dec. 31. Keefe said the association and the Marines are far apart on terms.
“Right now, our main concern is to get the lease in place, and to come up with a plan to show that nothing will leave the lease area,” Keefe said.
In an attempt to raise funds, Keefe has asked the association's more than 600 members for a leap of faith, to renew their memberships for 2009 even though the range is closed and there is no new lease.
Founded as the North Island Gun Club in 1947 in Coronado, the Navy requested the range move to Miramar Naval Air Station in 1957. In 1977, it was relocated by the Navy to the south side of the base, near the junction of Highway 163 and I-15, off Kearny Villa Road. The San Diego Shotgun Sports Association formed in 2001.
Dennis Rohman, manager at Project 2000 Shooting Range in El Cajon, said he picked up a few shooters at his range since Miramar closed, but not a significant number.
“I hate to see that range close,” Rohman said. “It's the only range with American Trap Association shoots, the only skeet field the public can shoot at. And it's the only one in the area with international trap bunkers. It's two of 40 in the U.S., so to take two out like that, people don't realize how detrimental to the sport it is.”
Olympic hopefuls Susan Sledge and Brian Burrows, both members of the U.S. Shooting Team, quit practicing at Miramar when the association voluntarily shut down its two international trap fields. Sledge still took first in the fall selection match last month and qualified for the World Shotgun Championships in Slovenia next year, and Burrows won the U.S. Junior Olympic Championship earlier.
Ed Zieralski: (619) 293-1225; ed.zieralski@uniontrib.com
