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STEVE BOUSQUETA House panel votes out a bill to block governments from suing ranges over pollution.
TALLAHASSEE - A Republican-dominated House committee on Tuesday passed a bill pushed by the National Rifle Association that would prevent the state from suing 400 gun ranges to require cleanups of lead and arsenic contamination.
The bill would make gun ranges immune from state or local government lawsuits, even if contamination was deliberate, and would apply retroactively to cases already in the courts.
Supporters of the bill say the state is using its environmental power over gun ranges as a form of "backdoor gun control."
"The bully boys of government have no business using their power, and their resources, to put little guys out of business," NRA lobbyist Marion Hammer told the House Judiciary Committee. Critics of the bill include the state Department of Environmental Protection, the Southwest Florida Water Management District, Audubon of Florida and the Sierra Club.
The bill was sparked in part by a state lawsuit against Skyway Trap and Skeet Club of Pinellas Park, where the state says lead pellets from 60 years of target practice have contaminated soil and water. The water management agency, commonly known as Swiftmud, owns some adjoining property.
Swiftmud's general counsel, William Bilenky, told lawmakers that between 7,000 and 13,000 tons of lead are buried on range grounds. He said lead projectiles have threatened nearby Sawgrass Lake, where children fish, and a park where students go on environmental education tours. The cost of a cleanup is $10-million to $15-million, he said.
"We're not demonizing the shooting ranges," Bilenky said. "There is an environmental problem that has to be cleaned up. ... Children fish in that lake, and we have been finding elevated lead levels in that lake."
He presented large slides showing the close proximity of the shooting range to the park and lake.
DEP's Michael Sole cited studies showing that lead causes birth defects, gastrointestinal problems and damage to the central nervous system.
Unswayed by such testimony, the committee passed the bill 8-4, with Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no.
Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, an opponent of the bill, said it was "absurd" for Hammer to suggest that the state was trying to push a gun control agenda.
"The choice is pretty simple," Gelber said. "Do you want our children drinking lead, or don't you?"
Four members were absent, and Rep. John Quinones, R-Kissimmee, stepped out of the committee room moments before the vote.
Tuesday's hearing was the public's only chance to testify on House Bill 149, sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala. The bill is ready for a vote by the full House when the 2004 session begins.