A Somers conservation group claims that a Mahopac gun club is polluting the Hudson River watershed with lead from spent shotgun cartridges.
The Somers Land Trust Inc. accused Willow Wood Country Club Inc. of violating the federal Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, in a complaint filed on Nov. 26 in U.S. District Court, White Plains.
“Ongoing accumulation and migration of toxic lead shot,” the complaint states, has “created conditions that present an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment.”
Somers Land Trust is a nonprofit organization created in 1992 to preserve open space, and it owns the 115-acre Rhinoceros Creek Reservation at the northern Westchester County border. Riverkeeper Inc., of Ossining, a  nonprofit organization dedicated to safeguarding drinking water, is participating in the lawsuit.
Willow Wood Country Club was established in 1955 as a rifle and pistol club, controls 80 acres in Putnam and Westchester counties, bills itself as a premier destination for enthusiasts of shotgun sports, and refers to itself more simply as Willow Wood Club.
In May 2023, members of the conservation groups found discarded ammunition on Somers Land Trust property, according to the complaint, and began testing the soil and ground water.
Soil samples revealed lead levels from 772 to 13,000 parts per million, the complaint states. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency classifies 200 ppm as hazardous. Ground water samples revealed lead levels from 9.71 to 81.0 micrograms per liter. The federal standard for fresh water is 65 mpl.
Samples also were collected near the gun club’s entrance, at a higher level than the shooting range. No lead was detected, the conservation groups claim, “confirming that the lead contamination originated from defendant’s downrange shooting areas.”
The conservation groups contend that lead pellets are projected into the ground at 24 shooting platforms, and get into Brown’s Brook and the surrounding wetlands, including Somers Land Trust property. The allegedly contaminated waters flow into the Muscoot Reservoir and New Croton Reservoir, then into the Croton River and ultimately into the Hudson River, “a critical drinking-water source for millions of residents of the Hudson Valley and New York City.”
The conservationists notified the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Environmental Conservation about their findings this past May. When the regulatory agencies did not take up the matter within 60 days, the conservation groups were allowed to sue the gun club under federal environmental laws.
The conservationists do not have to prove an actual harm, but only a reasonable prospect that exposure to contaminated waste may threaten human health or the environment, the complaint states. “Here, however, the measured contamination levels demonstrate a tangible, existing and ongoing threat.”
The conservationists are asking the court to declare that Willow Wood Club violated the Clean Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act; order the club to stop discharging pollutants and to comply with environmental regulations; and assess fines of $25,000 per day for each violation of the Clean Water Act that occurred after Oct. 25, 2020.
Willow Wood Club did not reply to an email that asked for its responses to the allegations.
Somers Land Trust and Riverkeeper are represented by attorney Todd D. Ommen of the Pace Environmental Litigation Clinic at the Elisabeth Haub School of Law, White Plains.
