Providence residents concerned about possibility of groundwater contamination

By Taylor Scott

January 26, 2006 | PROVIDENCE -- Due to current skeet-shooting practice taking place near the Providence Canyon water source, groundwater could potentially be contaminated by lead pellets, says Mark Thompson, a resident of Providence.

At Tuesday evening's Providence City Council meeting the public was given a chance to surface issues pertaining to the town. Thompson said he was concerned with shooters hitting clay pigeons with lead pellets over the town's water source.

Randy Eck, the Providence Public Works director, said "all those lead pellets, that's a lot of lead sitting on top of that ground."

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), if enough lead is deposited into the water it will be most harmful to infants and adolescents causing physical and mental delays in development. In adults, the EPA says too much exposure to the lead could potentially cause kidney problems and high blood pressure. The legal lead limits provided by the EPA are "regulated by a treatment technique that requires systems to control the cohesiveness of their water. If more than 10 percent of tap water samples exceed the action level of 15 parts per billion, water systems must take additional steps to reduce corrosivity."

Following Thompson's remarks Eck said Providence is working with the Forest Service and the Division of Wildlife Resources on finding a new place that will work for practice shooting.

"It is a popular place to go and shoot guns," said Thompson.

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