Plans for a new shooting range in West Mountain, a census designated place just outside Payson, have some nearby residents on edge.
The proposed 528-acre range would be built on land currently maintained by the Bureau of Land Management. The Civilian Marksmanship Program, a national nonprofit centered around training people in gun safety, would operate the facility.
When residents were notified about the possible land conveyance via postcard in June, they had concerns. A comment period on the project was initially set to end June 21, but after pushback was extended to July 19.
The project is still far from a done deal. Comments from the initial feedback period will be compiled as part of a full environmental assessment, which the BLM will make public later this year before holding a second public comment period. If there are no delays, the BLM said it expects to issue a final decision in Spring or Summer of 2025. At that time, an appeal period will open.
Here are some of the concerns and hopes residents and local leaders have about the project:
Concern: Noise
West Mountain residents have expressed concern about the noise that large groups of people firing at the range could generate. In places like California and North Carolina, noise from nearby gun ranges and target shooting led residents to ask for more comprehensive noise ordinances from local agencies.
CMP said the park will be open 4 to 5 days a week with shooting between the hours of 11-5 on weekdays and 9-5 on weekends. There would not be shooting at night or in the early morning.
CMP has plans to help mitigate noise by “constructing berms and planting trees facing the residential homes.” A berm is a raised mound of dirt that can be used as a barrier or source of noise reduction along freeways. A 1997 study found berms with traditional grass provide ~2dB less noise reduction than walls at the same height when used along a highway. Other materials and shapes can be used to make better sound barriers, however, so their effectiveness could depend on how well they’re constructed.
Concern: Lead Contamination
Residents like Norm Avery worry about lead from bullets at the shooting range contaminating their environment.
“If all the lead bullets stay in the soil for an extended period of time, you can get lead contamination. All of those houses, including ours, are on wells, and this facility sits right above us.”
According to a 1991 study published in the Journal of Occupational Medicine, “significant lead exposure and absorption can occur at outdoor firing ranges.” While a 2023 study published in Environment Research found lead ammunition use “puts children at great risk of take-home lead exposure,” it did not find a significant association between firing ranges and nearby lead levels.
CMP plans to follow Environmental Protection Agency guidelines for outdoor shooting ranges. According to their Chief Commercial Officer Greg Raines, they will use ballistic sand within the berms to prevent lead exposure. They will also take steps to mitigate lead every 7-10 years.
Raines cites CMP’s “similar park in Talladega Alabama where we follow the same strict rules for lead control and have had no issues.” They also plan to clean the area of existing lead from shooting before constructing the facility.
Concern: Wildfire Risk
It’s true that target shooting can spark wildfires. And hot, dry summer conditions can lead to high wildfire risk in West Mountain.
According to the BLM, CMP submitted “fire mitigation features such as breaks and staff training, as well as having a fire truck on site,” as part of their application for the land conveyance. If a wildfire were to occur on the property, they wrote in an email to KUER that “all fires on BLM land require an investigation to determine cause. The BLM works with parties who are at fault to assess what is needed to adequately address the damages.”
Hope: Mitigating Unsafe Shooting
According to Payson Mayor Bill Wright, who supports the project, one of the main benefits is its potential to control unsafe shooting that already happens on West Mountain. He said target shooters who frequent the area have “thankfully not struck any people but have struck some structures that have been on their farms, and there have been few cases where the round has actually hit the house.”
Some residents near West Mountain worry unsafe practices will just carry over and multiply with the addition of the shooting range.
The BLM conducted an education initiative in 2023 about unsafe target shooting practices when shots were hitting the nearby Genola community. BLM West Desert public affairs specialist Ashley Snipes said they believe “the CMP land conveyance proposal would encourage more people to go to this designated shooting spot instead of the dispersed target shooting throughout the mountain.”
