[CPEO-MEF] Rocketdyne (CA) - Sage Range and Runkle Canyon

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Cleaning up Rocketdyne
Citizen-inspired remediation starts at lab-adjacent Sage Ranch

By MICHAEL COLLINS
VC Report
November 21, 2007

The Boeing workers in the otherworldly suits looked out of place 
trudging through the dry creek bed that separates Sage Ranch Park and 
the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Nov. 20. Outfitted in head-to-toe 
translucent plastic uniforms with air filter masks, goggles and gloves, 
they chain-sawed a swath through the brush and trees blocking the 
seasonal stream. As they worked, their quarry appeared: black and grey 
blocks of lung-destroying asbestos and broken pipes with the toxic heavy 
metal antimony.

All the while, a worker used a high pressure hose to spray down the area 
to keep the lung-destroying asbestos from becoming airborne.

Work began Nov. 9 on what will be a massive cleanup in the hills near 
Simi Valley in eastern Ventura County. The remediation began after the 
state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) issued lab owners 
Boeing and the NASA an Imminent and Substantial Endangerment Order on 
Nov. 1 for the cleanup of asbestos-containing material strewn along the 
creek bed from 1965 to 1978 by lab workers working at the former NASA 
liquid oxygen plant (LOX) nearby. The order also requires cleanup of the 
Rocketdyne-Atomics International Rifle and Pistol Club shooting range 
where elevated concentrations of polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) have 
been found in the soil near and down stream of the former shooting range.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.vcreporter.com/article.php?id=5441&IssueNum=151

See also

State body will study hillside site concerns
Runkle Canyon's possible contamination to be reviewed

By Teresa Rochester
Ventura County Star (CA)
November 21, 2007

Simi Valley officials, residents and the developer of a proposed housing 
development have each weighed in on the potential danger of 
contamination found in Runkle Canyon, which critics say was likely 
caused by the nearby Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

Now it's the state's turn to weigh in.

Using data from a number of sources, officials with the state Department 
of Toxic Substances Control will decide if contamination at the 
1,400-acre site on Simi Valley's southern edge poses a risk to public 
health or the environment.

If the department determines the contaminants are dangerous, it has the 
authority under California's Health and Safety Code to order removal and 
cleanup.

For the entire article, see
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2007/nov/21/state-body-will-study-hillside-site-concerns/

-- 


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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