The Small Arms Firing Range Team (SMART) was formed in 2001 to produce tools to assist decision makers in understanding the ramifications of characterizing and cleaning lead from soil at abandoned or closed small arms firing ranges. The team completed its first technical/regulatory guidance—Characterization and Remediation of Soils at Closed Small Arms Firing Ranges (SMART-1). The guidance contains a decision matrix accompanied by technical and regulatory documentation to help guide the user through major considerations in the characterization and technology selection process. The team developed an Internet-based training for the Characterization and Remediation of Soils at Closed Small Arms Firing Ranges (SMART-1) guidance.
SMART-1 describes soil washing, soil stabilization, soil solidification, and phytotechnologies and includes data for evaluating soil treatment methods, projected efficiencies of various approaches, and costs. Relevant regulatory issues are identified. The team worked with USEPA Region 9 to formulate accurate language to solve a potential barrier.
In 2003, the team conducted Internet-based trainings on SMART-1 and embark on a new challenge—a maintenance and management guide (SMART-2) to assist small arms firing range operators to properly design, manage, and maintain lead and related constituents at operating firing ranges. While the focus of SMART-1 was on cleaning up firing ranges, the focus of SMART-2 is on pollution prevention—how to design and manage ranges to avoid contamination and maintain environmentally safe firing ranges. In developing the SMART-2 guidance called “Environmental Management at Operating Outdoor Small Arms Firing Ranges", the team drew from SMART-1, design requirements from existing state and federal programs, site visits, and case studies. The team also developed an Internet-based training for the aforementioned guidance and delivered on-site training to inform states that have no lead management program of strategies and programs available and described in the ITRC document.