Letter: Ruling may allow city to condemn Lamb State Park

Wednesday, Aug. 10, 2005 | 9:01 a.m.

The state of Nevada continues, as it has for the past several years, to reduce its staff at Floyd Lamb State Park. The park is now on life support and waiting for the city of Las Vegas to take over and perhaps pull the plug.

Walking through the park recently, I noticed an awful lot of shotgun BBs lying on the ground among what seemed to be Bear Poppies. In some places the shot was so thick that you could not see the earth below. I had thought for years now all gun ammunition was required to use only steel projectiles but this shot had no rust; perhaps it is an alloy.

While the skeet-shooting range in the park is required to do a semi-annual range cleanup, just how much lead over years has leached into this soil and even the groundwater? If this is a problem, then will the Environmental Protection Agency require the city to pay for any cleanup? Given the newly expanded powers of eminent domain bestowed upon government by the Supreme Court, could the city of Las Vegas eventually condemn a former 620-acre state park for a "better and higher" use? If so who gets the money from the land sale -- the city, its taxpayers or the state?

RICHARD RYCHTARIK