The latest volley in a longstanding dispute with a Williston gun club was shot down Tuesday.
State and town officials inspected alleged permit violations that claimed the North Country Sportsman’s Club used improper fill for the construction of a bowl designed to keep lead shot from washing into the contaminated Sucker Brook.
The construction site passed an informal inspection, state and town officials said Wednesday.
But Williston officials are still reviewing whether the construction site violates the more stringent town permit prohibiting the use of certain construction materials that were used to fill the bowl of the club’s firing range last fall.
Residents have documented a host of construction debris in the fill site that is prohibited under the town’s permit, including trash, a 55-gallon plastic drum, plastic piping, iron rebar, asphalt, construction filler fabric, bricks, carpet padding, electrical wiring, a 20-foot long concrete pillar and possibly hazardous waste.
The town’s Development Review Board permit requires that no construction debris used as fill contain asphalt, concrete, rebar or building debris.
Under pressure to complete the state-required remediation plan to cut lead pollution into the stream, the gun club began the construction project without a town permit. When the town later issued the permit, it did not require the club to remove the prohibited material.
But now neighboring residents want the permit thrown out. They want to club to remove the materials that they say will contaminate their water supply.
Leo and Mona Boutin live downstream from the shooting range. Concerned by what they say are toxic lead levels in the stream, they launched an effort in 2008 to require the club to clean up the brook.
The North Country Sportsman’s Club’s firing range, located on Gun Club Road in Williston, is within a wellhead protection area near Sucker Brook. The Agency of Natural Resources ordered the club to reduce lead loading into the stream.
According to Agency of Natural Resources data, water samples taken at Sucker Brook indicated lead levels above permitted state water quality standards, which they said is the result of lead shot accumulation into the brook.
The gun club agreed to relocate its shooting stand and construct a bowl to catch lead shot from running off into the nearby stream.
The club hired S.D. Ireland, a Williston-based construction company, to haul construction waste from Burlington International Airport last fall and from the flood-damaged Waterbury State Office Complex this spring to fill in the site.
Mona Boutin, who has been documenting the fill site with photographs, appealed the permit last week, alleging that the town is not enforcing its permit conditions.
“The piles are bigger and bigger, and nothing has been taken out of the site,” she said.
The town has visited the site several times since issuing a permit. It has not asked the club to remove any prohibited materials from the site.
Williston’s Planning Director and Zoning Administrator Ken Belliveau, who is charged with enforcing the town’s permit, said the site appeared “orderly” after attending a scheduled site visit Tuesday.
“I have not made any decision based on my site visit yesterday,” he said.
If the town finds the site to be in violation of the permit, it could ask the club to remove the fill, he said, and if the club does not comply, it could be fined up to $100 per day under state law.
The ANR has enforcement authority to require the gun club to remove the fill, but it has decided that the surface of the site met state standards, finding only “incidental amounts” of unclean fill.
“We didn’t inspect the material itself to see what else was in there other than what was visible,” said George Desch, director of ANR’s waste management division. “You’re not supposed to be bringing in solid waste. If it was over the top, we could direct them to remove it.”
Tami Wuestenberg, ANR’s point person to inspect the site for hazardous waste, said a site visit Monday did not support the alleged violations.
“The fill from Waterbury is considered clean fill,” she said in a phone message.
Tim Riddle, who is serving as the club’s spokesperson, declined a request to allow VTDigger to visit the site.
“It’s not a public forum,” he said. “We’re not looking to open the door to anybody.”
