The lot where San Diego Police officers used to practice shooting their firearms doesn’t look like much these days.
Although a sign still advertises business hours, the gun range hasn’t been open in more than two years. A bleached-out police squad car with a large “X” spray painted on the driver-side door is parked behind the locked iron entrance gate, as a secondary deterrence to would-be trespassers. And much of what used to be an outdoor target practice has been gutted and now sits piled up on the dry, overgrown grass.
The property in Fairmount Park – just north of state Route 94, between Interstate 15 and I-805 – isn’t just an eyesore, it’s a sore subject for the City of San Diego.
Last week, the City signed off on paying out $700,000 to the San Diego County Air Pollution Control District. The district fined the city for violating environmental standards at the range.
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Lead participles release into the air when a bullet hits a target. While renovating the range in 2019, the city chose to not install a lead dust filter – a decision that only saved $184,000 out of a $11.6 million project total. NBC 7 Investigates found an internal email from an engineer who questioned that decision.
Nonetheless, officers trained without a dust filter for about a year, until more than a dozen officers started feeling sick and tested positive for high levels of lead in their blood. In response, the City of San Diego shut down the range in May 2022. It announced the closure and listed risks of lead exposure in a letter the city mailed to 1,200 families who lived around the range.
“The biggest concern was lead exposure,” said SDAPCD Deputy Director Mahiany Luther. “Lead can cause all sorts of adverse health effects. Especially for kids because of all the potential developmental problems.”
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Out of the $700,000 settlement, $200,000 is purely a penalty fine. The other half-million will go towards a free shuttle service for the Mount Hope area. The shuttle will work similarly to the ones run in Pacific Beach and Oceanside. SANDAG will operate the fully electric shuttle that will seat up to 5 people. The pilot program also includes other areas of Southeast San Diego that SANDAG was already planning to service. A spokesperson says the entire pilot program will run for four years.
“We are very excited for this project and we think it’s going to bring many benefits for that community,” said Luther.
But that excitement isn’t shared by the union that represents the officers who worked and trained at the old range.
SDPD Police Officers Association President Jared Wilson sent NBC 7 the following statement:
"The results from the Air Pollution Control District are extremely disappointing for our members. Our officers working at the range suffered elevated levels of lead exposure and were sidelined from doing their jobs for months. The amount of firearms training our officers now receive is less than half of what it used to be. We still do not have a permanent solution for firearms training and are spending millions to rent a facility outside the city. The resolution from the Air Pollution Control District completely ignores our issues. Having the city spend money on something other than mitigating lead exposure from firearms training is a wasteful use of taxpayer dollars."
After the range closed, the city has leased space at a gun range in Poway for its police force, and it hasn’t been cheap. It will cost taxpayers up to $3 million over a five year period.
NBC 7 asked the City of San Diego and the San Diego Police Department for a comment on this story, and for their long-term plan for the gun range. They declined to comment.
As part of the settlement, the city did not admit any liability. The city has always disagreed with the SDAPCD health risk assessment study and has argued there was no lead exposure to the community.
