There's a new round in ongoing efforts by some to ban lead bullets and weights used by hunters and anglers.

This time, a coalition of groups, including a small California hunting organization, have petitioned the federal Environmental Protection Agency for a nationwide ban on lead ammunition and fishing tackle.

The groups maintain the federal government has the responsibility to impose such a ban under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

The act gives EPA authority to regulate chemical material that "present an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment."

In arguing for a ban on long traditional equipment mainstays in hunting and fishing, the groups claim there is "an epidemic of lead poisoning in the wild."

The groups put that mortality at "10 million to 20 million birds and other animals" killed each year when animals scavenge on carcasses shot and contaminated with lead bullet fragments, or pick up and eat spent lead BB pellets contained in hunters' shotgun shells or lost fishing weights.

Such lead poisoning leads to deaths in some, debilitating injuries in others, according to the groups, which say the effects have been documented by "hundreds of peer-reviewed studies."

"Over the past several decades, we've wisely taken steps to get lead out of our gasoline, paint, water pipes and other sources that are dangerous to people," said Jeff Miller of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Now it's time to get the lead out of hunting and fishing sports to save wildlife from needless poisoning."

The groups say effective alternatives to lead are available for both ammunition and fishing equipment.

Along with the Center for Biological Diversity, groups seeking the lead ban are the American Bird Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity, Association of Avian Veterinarians, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, and Project Gutpile, a California-based group of sportsmen and conservationists with a mission of raising awareness about the dangers of lead in the sporting community.

The National Shooting Sports Foundation, the trade association for the firearms industry, and the National Rifle Association quickly attacked the initiative.

The NRA called the Center for Biological Diversity "a radical anti-hunting organization" and said attempts to eliminate traditional forms of hunting ammo is nothing more than an effort "to drive away hunters by mandating the use of costly ammunition they cannot afford."

The petitioning groups vigorously deny that.

While not denying that lead poisoning occurs in wildlife — lead poisoning in waterfowl was documented decades ago — the NSSF's senior vice president and general counsel, Lawrence Keane, said there is no evidence that lead left behind by hunters and anglers is harming any overall populations of wildlife in the United States.

"The core argument in this case is you manage populations, not harmed individuals," he said in an interview.

"If wildlife management becomes based solely on that, then you've just made the argument to ban hunting."

Both NSSF and the NRA predict the petition will be denied on legality alone. They say that when Congress passed the Toxic Substance Control Act in 1976, it specifically exempted the term "chemical substance" from applying to ammunition and sporting equipment that fall under the Pittman Robertson Excise Tax.

The across-the-board lead ban may indeed be doomed to failure. But it is hardly a pie-in-the-sky movement and has gotten traction here and there across the country.

Lead shotgun pellets have been banned in this country since 1991 for hunting waterfowl.

As far back as 1994, EPA proposed a nationwide ban on lead fishing sinkers in sizes harmful to waterfowl, but the regulations were never approved.

Groups opposing the lead ban belittle the contention of groups that say lead poisoning threatens endangered species. Populations of bald eagles, wolves and wild turkeys, they point out, have come back and are thriving, in large part to contributions from sportsmen.

But, in at least in one case, the endangered California condor, remaining numbers ARE threatened by lead poisoning from carcasses contaminated by hunters' bullets.

After dead condors were found with lead poisoning, both California and Arizona caught remaining condors for captive breeding. In 2007, California banned non-lead ammunition in the condors' range.

Lead sinkers are banned in some national parks. I know because I'll be flyfishing in Yellowstone National Park in a few weeks and I have to buy steel split shot.

Last year, the National Parks Service floated a plan to eliminate lead ammunition and fishing tackle in parks that allow hunting and fishing by 2010. The proposal was later retracted after strong opposition by the NRA and other groups.

Then there was the lead in venison scare of 2008. Several states at least temporarily stopped allowing hunters from donating deer meat to food banks after x-ray studies showed lead rifle bullets could fragment and spread lead particles through parts of the meat near the bullet entrance.

However, when the federal Centers for Disease Control were called in to North Dakota, they tested blood levels of 738 residents and found none with elevated lead.

Eighty-six percent of those tested said they had eaten more than one type of wild game. Nor has the Iowa State Department of Health found a single case of lead poisoning from wild game.

The petitioners are correct that alternatives to lead ammo are available.

At the Trop Gun Shop in Elizabethtown, manager Bob Evans says the store has carried copper rifle bullets for years.

At close to double the cost of lead, though, he isn't selling many.

"They're not buying them for a green alternative," Evans laughed. The ones that are sold are usually because of copper bullets' deeper penetration, desirable sometimes for hunting larger game animals.

And sinkers used for various bass rigs come in tungsten and brass at Susquehanna Fishing Tackle in Lancaster.

They're promoted as "green sinkers."

But like the copper bullets, the alternatives to lead are much more expensive, notes co-owner Mike Acord.

"I know the manufacturers are gearing up for this," says Acord of possible banning of lead in the future.

In fact, at the American Sport Fishing Association's annual show in Las Vegas last year, which Acord attended, a best of show award for innovative terminal tackle went to a guy who created sinkers out of drilled river stones.

The hunting and fishing manufacturers may not like it and sportsmen certainly will not like digging deeper into their wallets and pocketbooks, but it appears the lead issue, in this day and age, is not likely to go away.

acrable@lnpnews.com