RANGE EVALUATION SOFTWARE TOOL (REST):ASSESSMENT OF LEAD MIGRATION FROM SMALL ARMS RANGES

The U.S. Army and others have operated thousands of small arms firing ranges across the United States over the past century. The ammunition used on small arms ranges contains metals such as lead, which is a RCRA-listed toxic material. Many of the facilities are still active and others lie dormant awaiting cleanup. To assist the Army's Range Managers in quickly assessing the potential for lead and other metals to migrate adversely, a software tool was developed. The Range Evaluation Software Tool (REST) is an easy to use Windows-based software application. The program was calibrated with site characterization data from 25 ranges across the country.

The REST software utilizes commonly available, site-specific information on topography, weather conditions, and range use to provide a qualitative assessment for lead migration. The information includes the number of rounds fired, soil conditions, wind speed and rainfall. The pathways for migration included in the program are transport with wind, surface water run-off, and percolation toward groundwater. REST provides a qualitative indication as to whether or not a migration problem exists in the form of a four-level, color-coded ranking. The ranking uses numeric scores from five categories: (1) mass of ammunition, (2) potential for corrosion, (3) aerial transport, (4) surface water transport, and (5) groundwater transport. This presentation will describe how to use the REST software including the details of the data input, the physics behind the calculation of the rankings, and the output.