WASHINGTON (CN) — A group of environmental activist organizations sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over a decision to continue allowing the use of lead ammunition by hunters in a West Virginia wildlife refuge, a reversal of a 2022 decision to phase out the toxic rounds.
In the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Sierra Club, Friends of the Blackwater and the National Wildlife Refuge Association claim the agency’s decision will lead to avoidable lead poisoning of countless animals throughout the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge.
The groups want a federal judge to deem the decision illegal and order a new rule that complies with the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act, such as requiring the agency to resume its phaseout plans.
According to a 2013 report published by a group of scientists with expertise in lead and environmental health, lead-based ammunition poses risks to both humans and wildlife. Traces of lead have been found in hunters’ digestive systems after eating meat shot with lead bullets, as well as in processed meat derived from wild game.
Scavenger birds like the California condor and the bald eagle who feed on carcasses are also at particular risk of lead poisoning because the bullet fragments into hundreds of tiny pieces when it strikes an animal.
The National Park Service has identified lead poisoning as the biggest threat to the critically endangered California condor. Semiannual tests conducted by the service show that some of the free-flying condors at Pinnacles National Park in California have had enough lead in their blood to kill a human.
By the time the condors in the park reach breeding age, nearly all have received emergency treatment for lead poisoning.
“As a lifelong hunter and conservationist, I know the severe impact that use of lead ammunition is having on non-targeted wildlife, as well as how easy it is to switch to non-toxic alternatives,” said Dan Ashe, board member of the National Wildlife Refuge Association and former director of the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The plaintiffs also detail how fragments of lead bullets are also ingested by birds who use small pebbles to help digest their food, which can cause fatal lead poisoning.
“The use of non-lead ammunition helps to protect vulnerable wildlife from lead poisoning and enables hunters and their families to safely eat the game they’ve killed,” Ashe said in a statement on Monday.
The suit is the latest step in a six-year effort to end the use of toxic ammunition and lead tackle. In 2017 Ashe, as director of the agency, initiated a gradual phaseout to be completed in 2022. His decision was overturned by the administration of former president Donald Trump, then revived under President Joe Biden in June 2022.
The Biden administration’s plan took aim at nine other wildlife refuges throughout the country besides the Canaan Valley, including the Pakota River, Blackwater, Chincoteague, Erie, Wallops Island and more. The proposal has a deadline of fall 2026.
According to the suit, the only explanation the agency provided for the reversal was that the West Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources expressed concern about the phaseout and requested that the proposal be withdrawn. The agency did not elaborate on what the state’s concerns were, other than a worry that non-lead ammunition was incompatible with some firearms and could lead to a decline in hunting and deer harvesting.
The environmental groups expressed concern in the lawsuit that the agency’s accommodation of West Virginia’s concern may have provided a blueprint for other states to ask for similar exemptions, effectively neutering the policy.
The agency did not respond to a request for comment.
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