The Rooney Valley Law Enforcement Training Range deals in lead.

The shooting range is used not only by the Lakewood Police Department, but also the departments of Arvada, Golden and Wheat Ridge; the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office; and even some federal agencies.

All those bullets and casings add up.

The range will be closed until July 23 while the lead is removed from the ground before it can become a danger to anyone using the range.

“We monitor the lead levels consistently, and the last time we had to do a cleanup was eight years ago,” said Steve Davis, public information officer for the Lakewood Police Department. “Doing this is totally expected and something that we have to deal with. It’s important to get the lead removed before it becomes any kind of issue.”

All the agencies that use the range make donations to get the site cleaned up, but since it is on Lakewood land, the city takes charge of the effort.

The work was originally scheduled to be done in October, according to Davis, but it was moved to the summer to take advantage of better weather and to accommodate training and usage needs.

How often the site is cleaned depends on the volume of usage, said Jeff Streeter, a commander for the Lakewood Police Department. Certain environmental and safety guidelines must be maintained, and when needed, the city hires an outside agency that specializes in removing lead from the ground.

“They take out a considerable amount of dirt and sift all the lead out,” Streeter said. “Once they’re done with that part, they put the dirt back with a bonding agent that keeps lead from leeching into the dirt.”

Maintaining the training range is not only important for cleanliness, but also because there are not many places that police departments can go to work on their marksmanship.

“It’s getting harder and harder for law-enforcement agencies to find a place to practice their shooting,” Davis said.