TexasCHLforum.com

From what I've read today, it was in 2008 that the EPA "issued new National Ambient Air Quality Standards for lead that were 10 times tighter than the previous standard." The Doe Run Company evidently tried to bring this smelter in Herculaneum, MO into compliance but finally decided in 2010 that it was simply too expensive to do so. The company then reached an agreement with the state of Missouri and the EPA that the smelter would close its doors on December 31, 2013.

I wish I knew more about the actual supply chain and manufacturing of ammo, but I don't, and really don't know if this will have any practical affect on supply and cost. But the Doe Run plant had been open since 1892, and the NRA-ILA comments: "What is clear is that after the Herculaneum smelter closes its doors in December, entirely domestic manufacture of conventional ammunition, from raw ore to finished cartridge, will be impossible."

So even if it doesn't noticeably affect my range time, it's still a shame that we lose that start-to-finish domestic capability. This Saturday marks the 72nd anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into WWII. Makes you wonder what Eisenhower or Patton would think about this development...