DNREC aims to clean up sportsman’s club

The Delaware Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Control is seeking public comment on a proposal to clean up the former Broadkiln Sportsman’s Club site near Milton.

Located off Deep Branch Road, the site historically operated as a shooting range. According to a notice published Dec. 20 by DNREC’s Division of Waste and Hazardous Substances, impacted site soils are being excavated to reduce concentrations of contaminants of concern, including lead. The site will have an environmental covenant restricting it to nonresidential type uses and placing limits on groundwater withdrawal, said the notice.

Included with the public notice is a report prepared by the state’s contractor EA Engineering, Science and Technology. The report says the site comprises about 13 acres of land surrounded by Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge to the north, east, southeast and northwest, and undeveloped woodlands to the south and southwest.

According to the report, prior to the inception of the sportsman’s club, the property was used for agriculture. The Broadkiln Sportsman’s Club operated as a shooting club from the early 1960s to the late 1990s, when the club closed, and the property has since remained vacant. Sussex County deed records indicate that in 2008, three acres around the on-site pond were given to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in a conservation easement.

The property contains a single one-story building that was used as a clubhouse and two shooting areas, which comprise an outdoor pistol range with an earthen berm as the backstop and a five-station trap field that encompasses about seven acres of the property. The remaining portions of the property are undeveloped wooded areas.

The outdoor pistol range backstop is about 100 feet north of the clubhouse and comprises 10 shooting positions. The backstop, an earthen berm used to stop the lead bullets, is about 80 feet long, 6 feet tall, and 30 feet wide. The five-position trap range is 50 feet east of the clubhouse. The trap houses are about 300 to 400 feet from the adjacent Prime Hook National Wildlife Refuge. Typical lead shot in trap loads can reach nearly 770 feet from the shooter. The targets, known as clay pigeons, are limestone chalk and pitch.

The report says there’s an estimated 75,000 pounds of lead to reclaim as part of the project. 

The state’s contractor proposed four alternatives.

The first would be to take no action, which includes no removal, institutional controls, additional monitoring or maintenance. DNREC would conduct five-year reviews because contaminants of potential concern would remain in the soil at concentrations exceeding preliminary remediation goals.

The second alternative includes excavation of soil from the pistol range backstop and the trap field, lead screening and reclamation and off-site disposal of the soil. The estimated cost for this alternative is about $1.09 million and would take about a month to complete.

The third alternative is the same as the second, but includes site restoration. The estimated cost for this alternative is about $1.5 million and would take about two-and-a-half months to complete.

The fourth alternative would be to place a multi-media cap over the contaminated soil. The cap would comprise a geosynthetic liner and a 24-inch layer of vegetation-bearing soil. This estimated cost for this alternative is also $1.5 million, but would limit the land for reuse.

The contractor has recommended alternative two.

Details of the proposed plan are available online at: den.dnrec.delaware.gov/. The comment period ends Tuesday, Jan. 9. For additional information, contact John Costa, project manager, at 302-395-2600 or by email at RS_Public_Comments@delaware.gov.