[CPEO-MEF] Santa Susana Lab lawsuit press release

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Natural Resources Defense Council
Committee to Bridge the Gap
Los Angeles City Attorney's office:

CONSERVATION GROUPS, JOINED BY L.A. CITY ATTORNEY ROCKY DELGADILLO, SUE
BUSH ADMINISTRATION OVER CONTAMINATED SANTA SUSANA NUCLEAR MELTDOWN SITE

Administration Plan Would Allow Housing on Dangerously Contaminated Land
30 Miles from Downtown; Decision Could Affect Nuke Cleanup Nationwide

LOS ANGELES (October 21, 2004) -- Conservation groups, joined by the
City of Los Angeles, sued the Bush Administration today, alleging it
broke longstanding commitments to clean up a radioactively contaminated
nuclear facility in Southern California. The Santa Susana Field
Laboratory, a federal reactor testing site near Los Angeles, housed ten
reactors, one of which suffered a partial meltdown in 1959. Despite
extensive radioactive and chemical contamination, the U.S. Department of
Energy (DOE) announced last year that it was reversing a decade of
promises to clean up the site according to U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) standards. Instead, DOE intends to leave untouched 99
percent of the radioactively contaminated soil and then release the land
for potential residential development.

According to EPA, the cleanup criteria chosen by DOE would permit
concentrations of some radioactive materials in the soil 10,000 times
higher than EPA remediation goals; concentrations so high they pose the
risk of cancer for one out of every 50 people exposed. Nevertheless,
once cleanup is complete, according to DOE, "future use of the property
for residential purposes is probable."

The lawsuit, filed today in federal court in San Francisco by NRDC
(Natural Resources Defense Council), Committee to Bridge the Gap (CBG),
and the City of Los Angeles, alleges violations of several environmental
laws, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered
Species Act and CERCLA, the Superfund law. It seeks to force DOE to
conduct a thorough environmental review of the site and to clean up the
radioactive and chemical contamination according to the highest standards.

Accidents, Spills, Meltdown Leave Deadly Mess

The 2,800-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory is located atop hills
between the Simi and San Fernando Valleys in southeastern Ventura
County, approximately 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. For
decades, the site was used to test nuclear reactors and rocket engines.

A reactor at the site suffered a partial meltdown in 1959 that
scientists estimate may have released more radioactivity than the
meltdown at Three Mile Island in 1979. Two other reactors suffered
serious accidents in 1964 and 1969, when large numbers of nuclear fuel
rods cracked. Radioactive contamination from decades of accidents and
spills is widespread. Toxic chemicals such as TCE, dioxins, PCBs and
heavy metals also pollute the site - by-products of rocket engine
testing and nuclear activities.

Fifteen years ago, CBG and NRDC joined forces with local community
groups and shut down nuclear operations at the site.

Energy Department Flip-Flop

Late last year, EPA found DOE in violation of the DOE-EPA 1995 Joint
Policy that commits all DOE sites to be cleaned up consistent with EPA
standards. EPA also found that under DOE's new plans, it would not be
safe to release the site for any unrestricted use such as homes, and
that the only acceptable use would be day hikes with limitations on picnicking.

Although the cleanup of such a contaminated nuclear site clearly is a
major federal action that could significantly impact the environment,
DOE failed to prepare a required Environmental Impact Statement,
producing instead a conclusory "environmental assessment." DOE also has
failed to consider in its environmental review the recent discovery that
tritium (essentially radioactive water) contaminates groundwater at the
site at four times safe drinking water levels.

"Surface and groundwater contamination by toxic and radioactive
substances does not stop at city borders or respect county lines," said
City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo. "My office will continue to look out for
the health and safety of the residents of Los Angeles and Ventura County
to ensure that responsibility for cleanup of the problems at this
facility is properly addressed."

"This case could affect nuclear contamination and public health
nationwide," said Joel Reynolds, a senior attorney with NRDC and
director of its Urban Program. "If the administration can ignore
sensible cleanup standards here, at a site with a long history of
nuclear accidents and even a reactor meltdown, it will do so anywhere.
But if we can enforce a strong federal cleanup policy at Santa Susana,
we will establish a precedent to safeguard the public nationwide."

"It is hard to conceive of putting houses on top of a former meltdown
site," said Daniel Hirsch, President of CBG, another party to the suit
and a longtime watchdog of Santa Susana Field Laboratory. "It is even
harder to imagine given that EPA says it would be safe only for day
hikes and limited picnics. We sue to get the government to live up to
its promises, to clean up the mess it made, and place no more people at risk."

"We've been lied to for twenty years about the health consequences of
this place," said Barbara Johnson, a cancer survivor who lives in the
shadow of the field lab. "I'm so grateful that someone is finally going
to force them to clean up this awful mess. It shouldn't take a lawsuit
to get the government to protect us."

Copies of the Complaint and rare government film showing the meltdown
and aftermath are available upon request.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit
organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists
dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in
1970, NRDC has more than 1 million members and e-activists nationwide,
served from offices in New York, Washington, Santa Monica and San Francisco.

Committee to Bridge the Gap is a nuclear watchdog group, also founded in
1970, that provides technical, legal, and organizing assistance to
communities near existing or proposed nuclear projects.

NRDC and Meyer & Glitzenstein, a public-interest law firm in Washington,
D.C., represent the non-governmental plaintiffs. 

For the original press release and links, go to
http://www.nrdc.org/media/default.asp#1021meltdown 

-- 


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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