Within the next year, about four acres of the McPeek Lodge grounds must be fenced off because of lead contamination in the ground, according to Granville Township officials.

Survey work began Sept. 16 to determine the best placement for the fence, said Granville Township Trustee Bryn Bird.

"The EPA standard is it has to be a seven foot chain link fence, so just picture that right in the middle of that field," she said looking out into the area that will eventually be separated from the rest of the property.

The work is being mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency because of underground lead contamination, a result of a shooting range that operated at the property from the 1940s until 2015.

The township has monitored the lead, which comes from the bullets used by the shooting range, since it purchased the land in 2005, Bird said. She said the land has been tested each year since she became a trustee.

"We invited Denison University students out with their environmental group," she said. "We knew it was here. It was not migrating. It didn't move. It just stayed in the soil under the ground."

In October 2021, the township received a letter from the EPA mandating that the township clean up the contaminated area. The original quote the EPA provided was $2 million to cover an extensive cleanup effort that would have required the township to tear all the dirt out, cut all the plants and trees down and then take the materials to a hazardous waste dump, Bird said.

The project would have wiped out the $2 million in the township's unrestricted general fund. The township hired environmental attorney Timothy Hoffman, who worked out the compromise of fencing off the area, Bird said.

The company that ran the shooting range is now defunct, Bird said and it's now the township's responsibility to clean up the property.

Bird said she wanted to assure the public that if they have been at the lodge, they are not at risk for lead poisoning.

"It's not found at the surface. I know many families and groups and clubs use it, and we've monitored it and it's been a safe, passive recreation (area)," said Bird, whose children attend Girl Scout meetings at the lodge.

Bird said the lead does go onto an eastern neighboring property, and they are still determining the best way to contain the lead there.

The township's long-term plan is to eventually clean up the lead, Bird said. The CHIPS and Science Act, which President Joe Biden signed into law earlier this year and paves the way for the Intel Corporation's semiconductor manufacturing plants in New Albany, also includes money for rural brownfield cleanups, Bird said.

"The EPA at this point has said you have to contain it and stop the immediate threats to the public health and then in the future, we can go after these grant funds,” she said.

The survey work, fencing and legal fees will cost the township about $250,000, Bird said, adding that the fencing alone will be about $50,000.

"Hopefully once it gets in we'll try and work with some shrubbery to make a pretty screen in front of it," she said.

Bird said the exact timeline isn't known yet because of the wildlife habitat issues. With bats and bald eagle nests near the lodge, the township wants to ensure their habitats are protected.