Runkle Canyon is a picturesque yet troubled canyon in Simi Valley, California where KB Home hopes to build 461 residences. Contamination from nearby Created by enviroreporter
on Jun 30, 2008
Last updated: 10/28/10 at 05:19 PM
Community members, including Radiation Ranger "The Good Reverend John" Southwick, attended this three hour event with Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles' Denise Duffield, EnviroReporter.com's Michael Collins and Committee to Bridge the Gap's Dan Hirsch participated by telephone. SSFL and Runkle Canyon Project Director Rick Brausch headed meeting. When asked if Runkle Canyon developer KB Home would be willing to clean up the property's high strontium-90 and heavy metals to background, Brausch said "We have no grounds to compel it nor have they offered it." Brausch said that there were only 22 new soil samples taken to be tested for Sr-90, or one sample for every 72.5 acres of Runkle Canyon. "No decisions have been made on the [Runkle Canyon] project," Brausch said, adding, "This is not meant to be a lifelong process." "We're trying to get to the right answer," Brausch summed up. "We don't know what that particular answer will be." The spirited conversation spanned three hours with Collins questioning how one or two surface water samples, oddly containing no arsenic since nearly all California water contains arsenic, could be used to alleviate KB Home's potential obligation to test for heavy metals on its property. Hirsch pressed for additional strontium-90 and cesium-137 soil testing in order to insure 'community buy-in' to the results. "We reserve the right to compel actions based on environmental conditions," Brausch concluded. "My apologies for [DTSC] stumbles, gaffes and missteps."
AIRS-LA: Audio Internet Reading Service of Los Angeles with reader Joel Jurka. Begins about 2/3rds of way through 26 minute tape.
http://www.airsla.org/broadcasts/LAWeekly100923.mp3
This document was mass e-mailed to commenters who generated over a hundred pages of comments, none of which DTSC specifically answers here. In fact, these responses seemed cut and pasted from the July 22, 2010 letter DTSC sent to KB Home.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/Runkle%20Response%20to%20Public%20Comments.pdf
On the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, Simi Valley’s Radiation Rangers take Runkle Canyon developer KB Home to task after news that its former head, Bruce Karatz, was convicted of four felonies secretly backdating stock options to the tune of $6.6 million and then lying to regulators about it. The Rangers are happy that Karatz may be incarcerated but point out that the residents of the Simi and San Fernando valleys still have to contend with one of Karatz’s most controversial aquisitions under his tenure at KB Home: Runkle Canyon. The Rangers demand that KB Home clean up the canyon which appears contaminated with high radiation, chemicals and heavy metal yet is planned for a 461 home community. Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2010/04/for-whom-the-bell-tolls/
California EPA’s Department of Toxic Substances Control issues a new draft consent order regarding the cleanup of the old Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory that now includes site owner Boeing and requires that the company, NASA and the Department of Energy adhere to the strictest cleanup standards passed into law by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2007. Environmental activists like Simi Valley’s Radiation Rangers are thrilled by this renewed effort to remediate the pollution left at the site contaminated by chemicals and radiation and home to America’s worst uncontained nuclear reactor meltdown. See link below for more information.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2009/11/age-of-consent/
Photographs of the worst nuclear reactor disaster in U.S. history that happened just outside of Los Angeles July 13-26, 1959. They were taken by John Pace, an eyewitness to the Sodium Reactor Experiment meltdown, who spoke with us in an exclusive interview that took place, sadly, at the same time singer Michael Jackson died.
“This is a picture of the men trying to unstick the second fuel rod that broke off in the reactor, Pace told EnviroReporter.com. “They are looking under the lead shield of the Fuel transporter trying to see where the broken fuel rod was stuck at. They are on top of the reactor getting radiation from the reactor core through the open fuel rod hole with the fuel rod half in and out of the reactor. You will see one man with a gas mask on and the other laying down looking under the lead safety shield with a flashlight and no gas mask breathing in all that radiation.
“This is why I took this picture; because of it being so dangerous. I used a company camera not mine to take this picture. I took this picture from the SRE control room through the window looking out in the High Bay area.”
http://www.enviroreporter.com/gallery/rocketdyne-gallery/ssfl-area-iv/sodium-reactor-experiment/meltdown-photos/
Will new Department of Toxic Substances Control leadership in Runkle Canyon mean that DTSC will actually take citizen and media concerns seriously over development of this property that borders the nuclear area of Rocketdyne? EnviroReporter.com analyzes what the department has previously ignored. Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2009/08/enviroreporter-comâs-runkle-canyon-comments-analysis/
The Radiation Rangers ask why it sounds like the cleanup plan for Runkle Canyon is being decided without public input by the Department of Toxic Substances Control. Considering the stakes in the controversial canyon, where KB Home hopes to build 461 residences, the Rangers are demanding answers. Special week-long report. Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2009/08/railroading-runkle-canyon/
According to an analysis of a five-year study by a panel of independent scientists convened years after the incident, the SRE accident spit out up to 459 times the amount of radiation released during the 1979 meltdown at Three Mile Island.
Fifty years later, the contaminated site has yet to be cleaned up, although this month two federal agencies promised to plow ahead without the site’s current owner, Boeing. And in March, the Department of Energy provided $38.3 million in funds to complete the radiologic survey of “Area IV” as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Unlike the then-remote hilltop it once was, now more than a half million people live within 10 miles of The Hill, and downtown Los Angeles is 30 miles away.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/investigations/rocketdyne/50-years-after-america%E2%80%99s-worst-nuclear-meltdown/
“I sometimes wonder if we’re talking about the same place,” says the Reverend John Southwick of the Radiation Rangers. “Not only are DTSC’s orders to KB Home inadequate, unless the instructions for more radiation testing are significant; the department missed the most important stuff.” Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2009/08/radiation-rangers-runkle-canyon-comments
The Joan Trossman Bien/Miller-McCune Interview with Boeing – August 14, 2009
(Bien conducted this interview as part of our co-bylined August 24, 2009 Miller-McCune article “50 Years After America’s Worst Nuclear Meltdown – Human error helped worsen a nuclear meltdown just outside Los Angeles, and now human inertia has stymied the radioactive cleanup for half a century.”)
http://www.enviroreporter.com/investigations/rocketdyne/the-vision-we-share/
EnviroReporter.com has discovered evidence that Boeing-supplied documents contain false data as it pertains to Runkle Canyon, which calls into question whether additional sampling and testing in Runkle Canyon may be necessary to fully and accurately investigate the nature of the contamination and its source. Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2009/07/perjure-away-pollution-in-runkle-canyon
LA Weekly – July 22, 2009.
50 Years After a Santa Susana Nuclear Accident Holds Up Land Development Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/investigations/rocketdyne/wrinkles-in-runkle-canyon/
Documentarian Michael Rose is also the person who, in 1979 as a student at UCLA, unearthed news in an Another Mother for Peace pamphlet that would lead to revelations that the nation’s worst nuclear meltdown happened 30 miles northwest of downtown LA at something called the Sodium Reactor Experiment. Working on his Masters in the Motion Picture and Television Department, Rose ended up collaborating with Dan Hirsch of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear watchdog group now based in Santa Cruz.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/investigations/rocketdyne/ghost-of-a-rose/
Walsh’s 13 pages of “Comments on the Runkle Canyon Response Plan” include photographs and maps.
Walsh first questions the interpretation of the strontium-90 data found in Runkle Canyon by the developer’s lab Dade Moeller & Associates:
While we appreciate the need to potentially use data already generated to date, we feel it crucial to point out that independent review of that data should include a detailed explanation for the contradiction between the summary of the data, and the data itself (i.e. strontium-90 exceedences). This goes further than to merely underestimate the results, they in fact, describe exceedences to the strontium-90 results as being within range that they define. Six of the seventeen original samples submitted exceeded the MDA in concentrations that ranged from 4.756 pCi/g in SS-6 to 0.686 pCi/g in SS-16.
The Dade-Moeller report summarizes these same results to mean that no exceedences occurred. There have been many concerns about the independence and quality of the analysis of this contractor. This “inaccuracy” constitutes a material misrepresentation of fact, through omission and unsupported conclusions, which make trusting the conclusions of these reports, impossible. These questions remain unaddressed and we feel they are primary to the task of determining the trustworthiness and accuracy of the data collected and analyzed to date so that a truly informed and protective decision can be made on the Runkle Canyon project.
Frustration over the use of inaccurate maps of Runkle Canyon relative to its proximity to the lab are voiced:
One of the greatest concerns we have about this project is the proximity to the Field Lab and the fact that these maps continue to be used, shows a blatant attitude of misdirection. This issue has been brought to the attention of the regulator (CalEPA Department of Toxic Substance Control), and the developer, as well as the recent Simi Valley Acorn and Ventura County Star, but clear-retraction is the responsibility of the developer, and needs to occur within this current evaluation and be done prominently in each of the newspapers who have been writing on the subject, and all project materials distributed need to be replaced with accurate factual information that includes a prominent map that shows the border.
Local residents participate in public hearings about land-use and proposed development, ENTIRELY on the basis of proximity to their lives. To mis-state the location and proximity of these hazards is to blatantly falsify the impacts of this project, and must therefore be corrected with equal muster.
It is important that the regulator and the developer understand the basis for the community’s concerns: The environmental hazard findings coincide with the community’s concerns over the proximity of Runkle Canyon, LLC., to the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. If the basis for concern is distance, and the developer publishes a map (including to the press) that falsely creates a buffer-zone of land to “allay fears of proximity,” that does not really exist, that is then a fraudulent representation of this project and its’ potential impact to the neighboring residents as well as the future residents planned within the project.
On Runkle Canyon’s groundwater, Walsh begins first by quoting Dade Moeller’s report which dismisses Rocketdyne as the chemical culprit in the canyon:
“Conclusions and Recommendations”: The Rocketdyne facility located to the east of the southern 715 acre parcel is reportedly the origin of groundwater plumes of degraded groundwater, containing perchlorate and TCE, that have migrated offsite to the east and southeast of the Runkle Site. Based on the reported magnitude and direction of degraded groundwater originating from the Rocketdyne facility and the results of soil, surface water, and groundwater samples collected from within Runkle Canyon it does not appear that the historic sources originating from the Rocketdyne facility are adversely affecting the Runkle property. Further evaluation of chemicals of concern potentially originating from the Rocketdyne facility appears unwarranted at this time.” (P. 21/150)
This conclusion is questionable. TCE, which has a plume of subsurface contamination in Area IV above the 11-acre drainage into Runkle Canyon, has been detected in Runkle Canyon groundwater. Perchlorate has been detected in the site’s groundwater at levels ranging up to 55 times the Public Health Goal. The surface water has been impacted by high levels of arsenic, chromium, nickel, vanadium, barium, cadmium and lead. The surface soil has high levels of some of these heavy metals as well as strontium-90.
This Geocon report says it examined other reports to help form the conclusion that these substances aren’t coming from Rocketdyne and don’t need to be further evaluated. In the May 8, 2003 Miller Brooks Phase I & II report performed for GreenPark Runkle, it says regarding perchlorate: “The source is thought to be the SSFL facility.” Please remember that we do not have any evidence to demonstrate another possible source up in the canyon, and the fact that Simi Valley stopped looking, is not the same as finding evidence to the contrary. What we have here is evidence of perchlorate at Runkle Canyon and an operational facility that used perchlorate just above the site.
Walsh on groundwater-monitoring and offsite migration of radionuclides, chemicals and heavy metals possibly from the massive lab uphill of Runkle Canyon:
Runkle Canyon should be monitored for the foreseeable future due to the high levels of perchlorate previously found, and the verified presence of TCE, NDMA and other potential contaminants of concern. We hereby request that continued monitoring be done to determine the impacts to the groundwater, until proper and complete characterization of the groundwater at the SSFL is completed.
“Analytical results of surface water samples collected from East and West seeps in Fishtail Area that are not produced in a report. Samples were collected by Miller Brooks on April 5, 2005.” This idea of selectively picking and choosing the results to report on, creates an unacceptable level of bias to downplay the contaminant findings and suggest that “less looking” is appropriate. (P. 5/150)
Inaccurate claims of groundwater pumping are made here, when the pumping according to Boeing’s own statements, was turned off in 2000. “Historic pumping depressions at Rocketdyne have limited the movement of degraded groundwater beneath the property and have essentially confined the extent of known groundwater contamination to the area beneath the facility. Offsite migration of degraded groundwater has been identified in isolated areas along the northwest and eastern property boundaries.” (7/150) This brief, and insufficient statement of conditions of the groundwater work at SSFL, is inappropriate here as it leaves the impression that the groundwater issues at the SSFL are resolved, which clearly, they are not. There are many plumes at the site and the primary work done on groundwater characterization has been to support their own assumptions, which are based on not finding these COCs in other areas of the site and surrounding areas. The fact that they are present at the Runkle property directly contradicts the claim that it has only been found in these “well-defined areas.”
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/RunkleCanyon.pdf
Historic meeting of the Department of Toxic Substances Control and citizens of the Simi and San Fernando valleys takes place January 28, 2009 in Simi Valley City Council Chambers. Committee to Bridge the Gap president, Dan Hirsch, rips Response Plan as “propoganda” and says 2004 Environmental Impact Report for Runkle Canyon, approved by City Council, was “fraudulent.” Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2009/01/simi-we-have-a-problem
This is the flyer soliciting comments which when responded to, in September 2010, consisted of identical cut and paste documents to each of the commenters taken from a letter to developer KB Home. DTSC's profuse apologies do not change the fact that there was no attention paid to the comments which were from communities members and this reporter, Michael Collins. This blatant dismissal of the community's concerns breaking department policy further compounded by repeated scientific blunders and oversights are the most egregious that this reporter has experienced in his environmental investigative reporting.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/1-26-09%20DTSC%20Runkle%20Comments%20Flyer.pdf
D'Lanie Blaze's imaginative take on a possible Disney-themed advertisement for the KB Home development in Runkle Canyon. Disney and KB recently signed an agreement to have Disney-themed rooms and interior designs in new KB Homes like the ones planned for next to Rocketdyne.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/images/1-25-09%20Runkle-Space%20Mountain.jpg
The Simi Valley City Council indicated “support” for a new Runkle Canyon Supplemental Environmental Impact Report after the Radiation Rangers’ presentation at milestone meeting. More environmental tests were also ordered by State EPA of developer KB Home. DTSC’s Norm Riley said that he would review 2007 heavy metals tests of Runkle creek by the City and by the Radiation Rangers. Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2008/11/simi-valley-supports-supplemental-eir-for-runkle-canyon
This presentation shows more good scientific acumen than the DTSC has displayed during the entire breadth of its "work" on Runkle Canyon. That became abundantly clear in the Fall of 2010 when DTSC's Runkle Canyon Response Plan comments, once again, made major mistakes regarding both heavy metals and radioactive problems facing the KB Home development.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/Runkle_11-17-08ppt.pdf
During the debate over whether Runkle Canyon’s surface water is a drinking water source for Simi Valley, a number of folks have insisted that it isn’t, including members of the Department of Toxic Substances Control. Indeed, Runkle Canyon drains into the Arroyo Simi which replenishes the aquifer under Simi Valley which is pumped out and blended to be served up to citizens in the east part of the valley. During wet years, as our Runkle Ranch photographs show, that means a lot of water. During drier times, as shown in this gallery, the topography, signage and sewers clearly show that what comes down Runkle Canyon comes out the tap in Simi Valley.
A number of these photographs, at the end of this gallery, show the 11-acre drainage leading off of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory’s Area IV, where most of Rocketdyne’s nuclear work was done. In 1959, the worst meltdown in American history took place there, followed by at least two other partial meltdowns. Radiation contamination emanating from Area IV is thought to be why Runkle Canyon has tested so high in strontium-90 in tests performed by the developer in the late 1990s.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/gallery/runkle-canyon-gallery/runkle-ranch-11-08-08/
This map on page 14 of 17 pages of this report shows possible offsite disturbance around the lab with the greatest single concentration is on Runkle Canyon property that is slated to be dedicated open space. DTSC has not examined this document in its decision to proceed with a cleanup plan that doesn't take into account this area that could contain hazardous dumping. Perhaps future hikers will discover more than just great views hiking up Runkle Canyon near the Rocketdyne perimeter.
Ironically, just across the fence in Area IV of Rocketdyne, the place may be cleaned to background. The highlands of Runkle, however, will not even be investigated, at least not by KB Home or some entity hired by Boeing or the developer.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/10-16-08%20-%20Assessment%20of%20Potential%20Debris%20Areas%20Contiguous%20to%20SSFL.pdf
Dan Hirsch's testimony about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in front of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, United States Senate Oversight Hearing on Cleanup Efforts at Federal Facilities, Washington, D.C.
Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) chairs this committee and has had a long working relationship with Hirsch that has yielded a number of notable achievements including the Sep 3, 2010 Agreements in Principle to have NASA and the Department of Energy clean their areas of SSFL to background levels of contamination.
This 14 pages of testimony gives a precise and expansive view of the problems that have plagued SSFL resultant of sloppy and deliberately dangerous ways of using and disposing of lethal toxins.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/9-18-08%20Hirsch%20EPW%20Testimony-SRE%20meltdown.pdf
The very same company that bagged part of this ten year contract with the Department of Energy is the same company next door in Runkle Canyon seeing if there is any excess strontium-90, maybe from the DOE-owned nuclear facilities in Area IV of adjacent Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The Radiation Rangers and Rocketdyne activists have called this a conflict of interest that calls into question Dade Moeller's limited work in Runkle Canyon.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/images/9-03-08%20Dade%20Moeller%20$3%20bill%20DOE%20contract.GIF
This nine page document was completely ignored by DTSC even after the departure of Norman E. Riley as Runkle Canyon project manager.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/7-09-08%20Critical%20runkle%20canyon%20docs.pdf
EnviroReporter.com's 28 pages of questions and comments on the inaccuracies of some of these reports were totally ignored as were all of the scientific work you see laid out here on this timeline. The citizens of Simi Valley will have to deal with the consequences of this deliberate shunning of serious scientific analysis of the contamination problems plaguing Runkle Canyon. Those citizens will include the future residents of KB Home's development.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/7-08-08%20KB%2041docs.pdf
EnviroReporter.com completes analysis of thousands of pages of reports submitted by developer KB Home to Department of Toxic Substances Control as part of Voluntary Cleanup Agreement signed in April. Other critical documents were also analyzed, revealing that radiological and chemical contamination in Runkle Canyon may actually be worse than previously publicly known. Click link below to read more.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/2008/07/documents-confirm-more-runkle-contamination
EnviroReporter.com publishes extensive chromium analysis of Runkle Canyon "soil" sample taken by the Radiation Rangers and given to DTSC for analysis.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/runklecanyonchromium
WHITE BLIGHT exposes Runkle chromium problem in Ventura County Reporter. Terry Metheny hands out papers at DOE data gap meeting that evening in Simi Valley. DTSC begins campaign to discredit chromium finding, even though it came from their own lab but failed to note, and question Runkle Canyon chromium-impacted sample collected by Radiation Rangers John Southwick and Frank Serafine and given directly to now-retired DTSC Runkle Canyon project manager Norman E. Riley. Efforts to question this sample continue through time at least as long as this entry update, October 8, 2010.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/whiteblight
Ventura County Reporter and Collins win first place for News Feature (print under 100,000 circulation) for "Dirty Business" Runkle-related cover story at the 50th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards. Collins and Duffield win Online Journalists of the Year.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/lapressclub50thgala
While Runkle Canyon sits undeveloped, the developers continue to pay fees and taxes. "If they spent just a tenth of that on testing and remediating the property, KB Home wouldn't be sitting with this turkey right now," says Radiation Ranger "The Good Reverend John" Southwick. "Now the housing market is shot and even if it weren't, there's not enough water for those hundreds of homes they want to build just over the hill from the part of Rocketdyne where the meltdown was."
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/6-3-08%20GreenPark%20Runkle%20pays%20SV%20$849,456.pdf
Riley sends Serafine test results of the white substance. Test indicates high levels of chromium, nickel, molybdenum, potassium and iron.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/Rock-White_Precipitate--heavy_metal_results.jpg
When the DTSC sent its analysis of the white rocks given to Norman E. Riley by two Radiation Rangers, they didn't even bother to see what the results were before shipping them off. The Rangers were shocked at the results, results reporter Michael Collins reported on in "WHITE BLIGHT - Runkle Canyon’s Chromium Conundrum" in the Ventura County Reporter, June 26, 2008.
The article reveals the high levels of heavy metals in the evaporate that the DTSC didn't bother to look at (but sure did bother to question the veracity of the sample and honesty of the men who gave it to Riley - Rev. John Southwick and Frank Serafine. Unfortunately, intimations that somehow the residents have an agenda which then makes them suspect of spiking the sample, have been repeated even after Riley "retired." If only DTSC had devoted as much time to the actual science that they are charged with as it has trying to undermine the residents with blatantly false promises of public participation and input, it might have successfully done its job in accurately apprising whatever contamination needs to be remediated in Runkle Canyon.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/4-30-08%20MRD0679%20FINAL.pdf
EnviroReporter.com's Michael Collins pens article about this for the Ventura County Reporter entitled “REASSESSING RUNKLE - KB Homes and State agree to cooperate on troubled Simi canyon.”
http://www.enviroreporter.com/reassessingrunkle
One of these exhibits shows how much DTSC initially charged, or more accurately clipped, KB Home for all the supposed expert work did on the Runkle Canyon project: $114,884. Judging from what what has transpired during the time that was written until now, October 18, 2010, the work DTSC did was not even worth a tenth of that amount.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/4-23-08%20Exhibits%20A-C.pdf
This document shows that the levels where screening is necessary have been far exceeded in Runkle Canyon. This is the most precise document found to date that, by inference, can Runkle Canyon's chromium conundrum can be best assessed.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/4-08%20EPA%20Chromium%20Eco%20Soil%20Screening%20Levels.pdf
KB Home and the Department of Toxic Substances Control sign a “Standard Agreement for participating under California’s Land Reuse and Revitalization Act (CLRRA) Program,” which is intended “for the review of documents, and possible assessment and/or remediation of the Site.” KB Home agrees to supply DTSC with at least 41 extensive reports and documents for their inspection and pay for the $114,884 that this initial work will cost. DTSC’s SSFL project manager Norm Riley will head Runkle Canyon investigation which could lead to long-term remediation activities that KB Home will fund. Development now becomes incumbent on DTSC’s determination if the land is safe. The department will involve the public in decisions made about the site and KB Home's Chuck Heffernan promises “full cooperation” regarding Runkle Canyon to reporter Collins April 18. The Radiation Rangers and fellow citizens rejoice at the news. f the EPA’s background number for strontium-90 in the area.”
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/Runkle_Canyon_LLC_CLRRA_4_14_08_2_.pdf
Southwick and Serafine give white substance to DTSC's Norm Riley at SSFL workgroup meeting. Riley says he will have it tested.
Rev. Southwick and Frank Serafine discover mysterious white substance in Runkle Canyon.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/gallery/runkle-canyon-gallery/white-blight-chromium-march-26-and-june-10-2008/
The Ventura County Reporter publishes “DOWN THE TEST TUBES - KB Homes’ Runkle Canyon radiation tests questioned as more groundwater pollution is found and developer negotiates cleanup agreement with state.” Reporter Collins writes “While the Rangers wait for the city and developer’s reports, a new document discloses a previously undetected carcinogenic contaminant in Runkle Canyon groundwater, trichloroethylene (TCE). The Reporter has obtained a December 2007 study of offsite pollution around SSFL prepared by an Arcadia-based environmental engineering firm MWH for Boeing, NASA and the Department of Energy which shows that TCE has been detected in approximately 10 percent of several dozen groundwater samples collected on Runkle Canyon property.”
http://www.enviroreporter.com/downthetesttubes
In reaction to reports in the local media that KB Homes and the city’s strontium-90 tests had come back showing extremely low numbers, Rev. John Southwick writes to the city of his concerns. “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 writes. Citing the higher prior reports, he reasons 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.”
When Southwick finally receives the entire report he sends it to Collins who sees that the only scientific reference as to the method of “split-sampling” used by the city’s lab is from 1967 and by a department no longer even in existence! The city’s lab had used a 41-year old set of procedures laid out in “Radioassay Procedures for Environmental Samples” by the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare -- Environmental Health Series, January 1967.
No one at the City of Simi Valley noticed this. Obviously, there are more recent and accurate procedures for testing for strontium-90 in soil developed by the Environmental Protection Agency which was created by then-President Richard Nixon and began operation December 2, 1970.
“KB Homes has tried to assure the citizens of Simi Valley that the land is safe from Sr-90 contamination and generated their own Dade Moeller report,” Southwick continues in his letter, which also demanded the developer’s laboratory analysis which he finally received April 15. “This average is just 26.9 percent of the EPA’s background number for strontium-90 in the area.”
http://www.stoprunkledyne.com/files/SouthwicktoBehjan.pdf
KB Home hires Dade Moeller & Associates to test Runkle Canyon's soil that has repeatedly tested high for the radionuclide strontium-90.
Dade Moeller's results are not only a fraction of previous tests, they are a fraction of even background. Community members, including the Radiation Rangers, dismiss results.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/12-18-07%20Dade%20Moeller%20Sr-90%20Results.pdf
Mid-December, 2007: KB Homes approaches the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control and begins negotiations on a “Voluntary Cleanup Agreement” for Runkle Canyon. As part of that agreement, KB Home provided DTSC with 41 reports on Runkle Canyon. These documentswere later analyzed by EnviroReporter.com and the analysis was proved to DTSC on July 7, 2007. The DTSC has just become the lead agency to oversee a new agreement that would clean up the Santa Susana Field Laboratory up to strict EPA Superfund standards and leave the remediated Rocketdyne lab undeveloped and donated to the state as parkland or open space.
On page 7 of this 11 page, 4.16 MB MWH report explored in this timeline's Dec 13, 2007 event, it shows TCE detection in Runkle Canyon. The tainted water is in a well that used to water cattle. The reasons for this TCE detection may indicate that the plume of trichloroethylene under Area IV of the lab is larger than previously indicated. Or it could mean that it's from a source originating above ground. In either case, Mayor Paul Miller ordered the well that pulled up the TCE-tainted groundwater shut two years ago though there is no indication from KB Home whether that was done.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/12-14-07%20MWH%20Offsite%20-%20Runkle%20TCE.pdf
In our latest LA Weekly article on Boeing’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory, “Wrinkles in Runkle Canyon – 50 Years After a Santa Susana Nuclear Accident Holds Up Land Development” we talk about the cleanup of the 2,850-acre site which will cost hundreds of millions and is supposed to be completed in 2017. We also talk about the top Boeing environmental official on the site giving false information about offsite pollution in neighboring Runkle Canyon, where KB Home wants to build 461 homes about a mile from the site of the nation’s worst meltdown in 1959.
The article states:
In late 2007, Boeing supplied the state regulators in charge of the cleanup, known as the Department of Toxic Substances Control, with a 199-page Offsite Data Evaluation Report, which explained the results of 60 years of “off-site media sampling and testing data for chemical and radiological contamination” that had been collected by Boeing, NASA and the Department of Energy within a 15-mile radius around the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
Bizarrely, the report claims that during those 60 years, Runkle Canyon’s ground water and soil were never tested. But, in fact, at least one test was conducted, according to a 2007 report prepared for Boeing and obtained by the Weekly.
Signed under penalty of perjury by Thomas D. Gallacher, Boeing’s director of Environment, Health and Safety at the laboratory, the report also says that the area where most of the nuclear work was done — Area IV — does not border the adjacent Runkle Canyon. Yet the report has maps illustrating that picturesque Runkle Canyon does indeed border Area IV. One map also shows evidence of toxic trichloroethylene in the Runkle Canyon ground water.
Boeing, which bought the huge laboratory acreage in 1996, has not yet responded to L.A. Weekly’s questions about these issues.
So why does this matter? If Boeing is giving the government agency in charge of the cleanup, the Cal-EPA’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, false documents about the facility and offsite contamination, then how will the pollution, onsite and offsite, be cleaned up effectively? Is this monumentally important document inadvertently false or deliberately misleading?
Unraveling the riddle of Runkle Canyon will partially rely on the accuracy of the documents supplied to DTSC. EnviroReporter.com has discovered evidence that Boeing-supplied documents contain false data as it pertains to Runkle Canyon. This suggests that additional sampling and testing in Runkle Canyon may be necessary to fully and accurately investigate the nature of the contamination and its source.
On Dec. 13, 2007, Boeing supplied DTSC with a 199-page “Offsite Data Evaluation Report” that “summarizes and evaluates the results of offsite media sampling and testing data for chemical and radiological contamination collected by Boeing, NASA, and DOE within a 15-mile radius around the Santa Susana Field Laboratory over a nearly 60 year time period.”
“I certify under perjury of law that this document and all attachments were prepared under my direction or supervision in accordance with a system designed to assure that qualified personnel properly gather and evaluate the information submitted,” wrote Thomas D. Gallacher, Boeing’s director of the lab’s Environment, Health & Safety. “I am aware that there are significant penalties for submitting false information, including the possibility of fine and imprisonment for knowing violations.”
However, the report says on 1-18 (p. 37 in the PDF) that “Runkle Canyon and the SSFL do not share a common property boundary,” when maps in the document show that it clearly does. The document goes on to say “No environmental investigations have been performed by Boeing, NASA, or DOE on the Runkle Canyon property” when the map showing toxic trichloroethylene hits in Runkle groundwater is on page 184. The last page of this report combines the two notions by showing the groundwater sampling spot on Runkle Canyon and the common Rocketdyne border and saying, in conclusion, “Offsite sampling sufficient with no data gaps.”
California penal code states that in order for perjury charges to stick, the phony information must be statements “which he or she knows to be false.” So Gallacher may not have committed perjury if he didn’t know that the report Boeing submitted to DTSC had at least two significant falsehoods. But not knowing this, especially the fact that Runkle Canyon borders the lab’s nuclear Area IV, would suggest he and his team are incompetent. And if this were true, how can the entire report be trusted? Back to square one?
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/12-07_SSFL_Offsite_data-MWH.pdf
Norman E. Riley writes KB Home "strongly" suggesting that the developer welcome a site investigation by the department because of concerns over Rocketdyne's offsite contamination potential.
"[M]any questions have been raised about the possibility of contamination in the direction of... Runkle Canyon to the west of... the SSFL," Riley wrote. "We take those concerns seriously."
But not that seriously as the record then began to bear out under Riley. Higher hopes for the new Runkle Canyon project manager, Rick Brausch, have been dashed because of the subsequent ignoring of hundreds of pages of public comments and questions about the Runkle Canyon Response Plan and rhetorical apologies for not consulting with residents.
DTSC did, however, stall the project as the building market went into the toilet once the Great Recession began in the fall of 2008. DTSC's dawdling did much to thwart the developer's dreams of building out Runkle Canyon even though the department essentially let KB Home off of any substantial remediation of the property.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/11-8-07%20DTSC-KBHomes.pdf
DTSC's Norman E. Riley writes City of Simi Valley City Manager Mike Sedell informing him that DTSC had contacted KB Home that day about contamination concerns in Runkle Canyon. Riley goes on at length about all the things DTSC could command KB Home to do if a deal is struck. True to form, those grand ideas of testing drainages leading off of the Rocketdyne lab into Runkle Canyon were never acted upon.
EnviroReporter.com has no information that would explain why DTSC came into the Runkle Canyon situation, after first blowing the City of Simi Valley off about the issue, filled with energy and realistic conceptions of what should be investigated in the canyon and then, subsequently, do the bare minimum employing bad science all the while misleading the community that the department was actually doing anything solid to solve the toxics issues plaguing the property.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/11-8-07%20DTSC-SimiValley.pdf
Cover story appears in the Ventura County Reporter entitled “DIRTY BUSINESS - New law cleaning up Rocketdyne for parkland may not stop adjacent KB Home development pushed by Simi Valley City Council.”
Note: On June 21, 2008, the article wins the Ventura County Reporter and Michael Collins wins first place for the LA Press Club Daily/Weekly News Feature story, circulation under 100,000.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/dirtybusiness
Davis, California-based Larry Walker writes in his report that since Runkle Canyon surface waters do not have a "Municipal and Domestic Supply (MUN) beneficial use, that State rules regarding drinking water supplies do not apply.
This is debatable as it is common knowledge that Runkle Canyon Creek empties into the Arroyo Simi which waters the aquifer underneath the city which is drawn and blended for drinking water.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/files/10-30-07_Larry_Walker-SV_report.pdf
Check out these amazing videos of one of the most dramatic nights in the battle over Runkle Canyon.
“Corrupted Nature clip 24 -- Runkle Canyon is Contaminated!”
Posted July 26, 2008 by Brigham Maher: “Simi Valley City Council, Local Activists speaking out about contaminated Runkle Canyon. The city is under some kind of impression that the land is safe for development of homes. Runkle Canyon is about a mile away from one of the only uncontained Nuclear meltdowns in the world. The worst ever in United States History.”
Simi Valley City Council meeting October 22, 2007 where, in public comment, Brigham Maher, Adam Salkin, and David Carey express their opinions and observations about Runkle Canyon.
“Corrupted Nature clip 25 -- Runkle Canyon is Contaminated!”
Posted July 27, 2008 by Brigham Maher: “Residents speaking out against the possible development of homes on Nuclear contaminated Runkle Canyon located in Simi Valley California.”
Simi Valley City Council meeting October 22, 2007 where, in public comment, Rev. John Southwick, Stephanie Hyatt, and Terry Matheney talk about Runkle Canyon.
“Corrupted Nature clip 26 -- Runkle Canyon is Contaminated!”
Posted July 27, 2008 by Brigham Maher.
Simi Valley City Council meeting October 22, 2007 where, in public comment, Holden Bonwit, John Luker, Bill Bowling, and Christina Walsh speak about Runkle Canyon.
Posted July 27, 2008 by Brigham Maher:
“A Simi Valley city council meeting where local residents spoke out against the KB Home building project that has been planning to build homes in Runkle Canyon, a piece of property adjacent from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. A piece of property proven to be Contaminated with high levels of Strontium-90, Cesium-137 and other dangerous radioactive contaminants. High levels of perchlorate were detected in Simi Valley’s well water.”
Simi Valley City Council meeting October 22, 2007 where, in public comment, Christina Walsh, Mary Wiesbrock, Mayor Paul Miller and Council Member Barbra Williamson express their opinions and observations about Runkle Canyon. Williamson and Walsh having an informative exchange showing the divide in perceptions of the issue.
http://www.enviroreporter.com/video/runkle-canyon-video/
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