Norco, California Activist

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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LeRae Spera has made a crusade of exposing the activities of Wyle Labs,
a Norco test sit



By PAIGE AUSTIN / The Press-Enterprise
April 4, 2004

Some days she's an honored speaker at symposiums and community meetings.
State lawmakers make time to meet with her and reporters clamor for her
quotes.

On other days, city staffers won't return her calls, state officials
e-mail each other back and forth on whether she should be kept in the
loop and Norco residents she's never met grumble and whisper about her
at club meetings.

LeRae Spera's quest to expose activities and pollution at Norco's Wyle
Labs has made her an avenging angel to some in the community and an
alarmist and a nuisance to others.

A 43-year-old mother of four boys, Spera says she's just a normal woman
fighting for what she believes is right.

Those first rumblings

The battle began three years ago shortly after she and her family moved from
Orange County to a new home in the Norco hills.

The house was huge - big enough for her boys, her husband and her aging
mother. Most importantly, Spera, a Santa Monica native, would finally be
able to realize her dream of owning horses.

"It was perfect," Spera said. "There was open space in the hills for my
kids to run and fly kites. It was everything I'd always wanted."

Then one day, an explosion rocked the neighborhood, setting off car and
home burglary alarms. It wouldn't be last to jolt the residents living
around Wyle Labs, a hazardous testing facility. Her children began
telling her about clouds of smoke they saw as they played in the hills.
Shortly after that, Spera said she overheard two city officials
discussing contamination at the site.

She began researching the mysterious facility that bordered her
neighborhood and found that Wyle was a defense contractor authorized to
test missiles, warheads and depleted-uranium projectiles. She also
discovered that the company had a history of spilling hazardous waste in
the soil and water.

...

for the entire story, see
http://www.pe.com/localnews/corona/stories/PE_News_Local_csper04.e814.htm

--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 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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