[CPEO-BIF] Runkle Canyon (CA) homes and Rocketdyne TCE

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Down the Test Tubes
KB Homes' Runkle Canyon radiation tests questioned as more groundwater 
pollution is found and developer negotiates cleanup agreement with state

By MICHAEL COLLINS
Ventura County Reporter (CA)
January 17, 2007

As soon as the Rev. John Southwick heard the latest round of Runkle 
Canyon soil testing for the leukemia-causing radionuclide strontium-90 
(Sr-90) came back low, he started to question the results. After all, 
the Simi Valley resident reasoned, the picturesque canyon had previously 
tested 27 times higher than background for Sr-90. One hotspot, the 
closest one to the Boeing's old Rocketdyne lab, had clocked in at 411 
times "hotter" than normal for the area.

"Are we to believe that Runkle Canyon's soil, which is next to the site 
of this country's worst nuclear meltdown, the Santa Susana Field 
Laboratory (SSFL), tests cleaner than the background readings of Sr-90 
in the area?" Southwick wrote in a Jan.7 letter to the city of Simi 
Valley, government regulators and the media. Citing the prior reports, 
he reasoned that "...the City's recent split-sample results are nearly 
104 times lower than these previous results. This demands explanation 
and hence our request for the entire Environmental, Inc. report which is 
a publicly-paid-for document and therefore, by law, you must provide."

...

That is not good news for KB Homes, since TCE vapors are extremely 
dangerous and can cause unconsciousness, impaired heart function and death.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.vcreporter.com/article.php?id=5637&IssueNum=159

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org



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