A plan to clean up the Sunnydell Shooting Range, 160 Dryke Road, is due in December at the state Department of Ecology, stemming from tests that revealed lead in surface water on a neighbor’s property. The original tests were completed last January. Additional soil and sampling could be done in January or February 2010 with the data possibly available in March.

"They (owner Chuck Dryke and his son Matt) must do a remedial investigation and feasibility study to characterize the nature and extent of the contamination," said Guy Barrett, site manager for Ecology.

"We don’t know the extent of testing but, if we need to go off the property, we’ll do that."

Ecology signed an "agreed order" with Chuck Dryke. A step down from an enforcement order, it is a legal agreement to conduct a toxics cleanup.

Barrett said the January testing revealed lead contamination in the surface water of property north of the shooting range.

"That’s unusual because lead doesn’t usually dissolve in water. Maybe it from was skeet shooting across the land because shooting bullets into a berm doesn’t get lead into groundwater," he said.

Barrett said the neighbors haven’t been contacted yet because the test results are preliminary.

No data will be available until the sampling starts, he said.