Residents report tear-gas exposure from training near Marion range; supervisors say county is pursuing new range at landfill

A Smyth County resident told the Board of Supervisors that a recent law-enforcement training session using crowd-control agents forced a nearby family to evacuate and caused respiratory symptoms in a child.

"The Department of Corrections was using tear gas, and the tear gas had gotten down to their house," the resident said, describing the incident and the resulting fear and medical distress.

The complaint followed a longer public-comment exchange about use of the county—s training range near Marion for multi-agency exercises. The resident and other speakers said the range hosts frequent and varied training sessions that bring dozens of vehicles and participants to the private road that provides access.

Supervisors and staff said the county has a multi-year plan to develop a dedicated county range at the landfill to reduce impacts on residential areas. County staff told the board the landfill site requires additional grading and that best-case timeline for completing the landfill-range work would be "several months" before it could accept training; the board also discussed using the landfill location as the county—s long-term site for shooting-range activities.

Board members said they would continue to work with the town and with state and regional training partners to limit impacts on nearby neighborhoods while the county prepares an alternative site. No formal enforcement action or regulatory change was adopted at the meeting; the county administrator and supervisors said staff would continue planning and report back on progress toward the landfill site.

Next steps: county staff to update the board on landfill grading and range development progress; supervisors encouraged affected residents to report incidents and work with emergency responders to document health or property effects.