Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award - Sustainability Program (Bronze Medal)
On March 29, 2022 the Arlington-Fairfax Chapter, Inc., of the Izaak Walton League of America attended the 32nd Annual Virginia Environment Symposium held at Virginia Military Institute (VMI) and was awarded a Governor’s Environmental Excellence Award (Bronze Medal) for our environmental stewardship activities.
Our environmental management system (EMS) ensures that range activities at our property do not have negative impacts on the local environment. We treat our soils onsite with lime to help prevent the movement of lead through surface and groundwater, sample surface water quality regularly, and have implemented two lead clean-ups that have removed over 500,000 lbs of lead from the environment.
Environmental Management System (EMS)
Over 15 years ago, the Arlington-Fairfax Chapter implemented an environmental management system (EMS) to ensure that our range operations are not having delirious impacts on local water and land resources. Our EMS outlines lead management activities at the Skeet/Trap range to prevent the leaching of lead and other pollutants from the Chapter into offsite waters. To meet this goal, the Chapter applies lime and rock phosphate to the soils within the shot-fall area at Skeet/Trap. These two chemicals have been shown to bind to lead and prevent its movement into surface and groundwater systems.
Additionally, the Chapter has conducted to two lead reclamation projects within the shot-fall area and the Chapter has transitioned to bio-degradable targets at the Skeet/Trap range, furthering our environmental stewardship practices. Water quality samples are collected regularly at the Chapter to ensure that lead levels in our surface waters are below regulatory limits. With all of these and other practices, the Chapter’s EMS ensures that we are going “above and beyond” the call of duty for environmental stewardship.