Santa Susana - "Two Mile Island"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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TWO MILE ISLAND 

by Michael Collins 
Los Angeles City Beat
July 22, 2004

The Rocketdyne facility is more poisoned than anyone knew. Now residents
and community leaders of the northwest San Fernando Valley and Ventura
County supervisors want more testing before new homes get any closer

"I didn't know anything when I worked up at Rocketdyne, I just didn't
know anything," said Bonnie Klea. "I didn't have a clue how dangerous it
was up there." The West Hills resident sure knows now. Years after
working at Rocketdyne's sprawling Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL)
high in the hills between the San Fernando and Simi valleys, she came
down with a rare bladder cancer in 1995. Ever since, she has been a
vocal critic of the military and aerospace company now owned by the
largest private employer in Southern California, Boeing. 

Klea has fought Rocketdyne tooth and nail and has little to show for it.
Her successful struggle against cancer is another story. "I had surgery
and was in the hospital nine times in nine months. I had the tumor taken
out. I had four different kinds of chemotherapy and I did a full term of
radiation on top of that. I didn't want it to come back so I said 'give
it all to me.'" 

Of the cancer itself, Klea says, "It's in the neighborhood. On my little
street alone, I have two neighbors that have had bladder cancer."
Sixteen cancers have afflicted residents in 15 homes on Klea's block. A
1990 state health department survey of cancer records showed elevated
levels of bladder cancer in the census tracts closest to the lab. That
includes tract 1132 where Klea lives, less than two miles from SSFL. The
2,668-acre lab has an abysmal pollution record of partial nuclear
meltdowns, radiological mishaps, and chemical contamination, making it
one of the most fought-over environmental cleanup sites in the nation. 


...

for the entire article,
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=1072&IssueNum=59

-- 


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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