Even though neighbors and environmentalists were very against it, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board voted unanimously Thursday to approve an agreement with Boeing Co. that will make sure polluted stormwater won’t still flow into local creeks and the Los Angeles River after the company cleans up the notoriously toxic Santa Susana Field Laboratory.
The agreement says that Boeing has to look for 195 pollutants in the stormwater that flows into the Calleguas Creek watershed after the company cleans up the 2,850-acre site on a plateau in southeast Ventura County. Boeing would have to test for pollutants in the outfalls of waterways after at least 12 storms to make sure that the levels of pollutants did not exceed federal water quality standards or background levels. After that, the water board could decide to release Boeing from these rules if it thinks the area is no longer a risk to public health or the environment.
After World War II, Boeing, the rocket company Rocketdyne, NASA, and the U.S. Department of Energy used the site as a testing ground for rocket engines for space travel and nuclear reactors for power. These activities left heavy metals and radioactive waste on the field lab grounds. Some of these contaminants, like lead, which can damage the brain, and strong carcinogens, have moved away from the site and have been found in creeks that flow into the Los Angeles River.
Different parts of the site will be cleaned up by Boeing, NASA, and the Energy Department. In 2007, these parties and the state signed a consent decree that said they had to clean up the site and keep the risk of cancer to one extra case for every million people who were exposed to it. But the health risk depends on how the site is used, and long delays were caused by legal disputes over how to clean up the site.
The state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control is in charge of making sure the company cleans up the groundwater and soil. The cleanup standard hasn’t been decided yet, but the work to dig up and remove soil could take 10 to 15 years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars no matter what.
Many agency heads saw Thursday’s vote as a win and a way to stop further delays that could be caused by lawsuits.
In a statement, DTSC Director Meredith Williams said, “Today’s vote clears the way for a strict cleanup at one of the most polluted sites in the country. This is a huge step forward after decades of stalled progress. ” ““DTSC is thankful for the Water Board’s careful consideration and looks forward to working with them to finish this cleanup.”
In the past, the water board has fined Boeing when it found that polluted water was being released near the site. In November 2018, a wildfire in Woolsey Canyon burned about 80% of the Santa Susana Field Lab site. This was one of the worst wildfires in L.A. County’s history. Not long after that, it started to rain in the area, and tests showed that there were unsafe levels of cyanide, copper, lead, arsenic, and dioxins. Boeing paid $25,750 for the high levels of TCDD, a powerful dioxin that can cause cancer.
Conservation easements, which are legal agreements between Boeing and the government, make it so that nearly 2,400 acres of land can never be built on or used for farming or residential purposes.
The water board voted after the head of the California Environmental Protection Agency, Jared Blumenfeld, and a representative from Boeing asked the board to approve a memorandum of understanding so that long-delayed cleanup efforts could move forward. In 2006, the field lab stopped making things for sale.
“We didn’t go to mediation with Boeing to find a middle ground, and just so you know, I’ve never been afraid to sue polluters,” Blumenfeld said.
But it went against the hours of testimony from elected officials, environmental groups, and residents who asked the board to delay or reject the agreement. Many of them said it wasn’t enough because it would only monitor and regulate a small portion of the pollutants that were already at the site. The agreement was mostly criticized for how long and wide the testing was. Some people were worried that Boeing would run the tests. There are more than 300 pollutants in the soils, groundwater, and surface waters, but officials from the water board said that not all of them were at levels that needed to be worried about. The required 12 storm events are thought to happen every five years, which some people thought was not enough.
“This lifting of restrictions on water pollution is like the old saying, “You can’t find a fever if you don’t take the temperature.” Dr. Robert Dodge is a family doctor in Ventura County and a member of Physicians for Social Responsibility’s board of directors. “How can the responsible parties be released from their promise to clean up the mess and keep an eye on and control the release of these contents?”
About 700,000 people live in Chatsworth, West Hills, Woodland Hills, Calabasas, Westlake Village, and Simi Valley, all of which are less than 10 miles from the site.
Parents Against the Santa Susana Field Lab was started by Melissa Bumstead, who lives in West Hills. She says that her group has found 81 cases of childhood cancer within a 10-mile radius.
“We definitely don’t want toxic chemicals in our kids’ water,” said Bumstead, whose daughter was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive form of leukemia in 2014. “We want them to have the safest water possible. No matter if Boeing thinks that is convenient or not. Our kids eat fruits and vegetables that were grown in water that the SSFL can make dirty. People drink it, bathe in it, cook with it, and even play with it. Having access to clean water that is safe to drink is important for their health and quality of life. And the lives of our children are more important than politics or how much money Boeing makes. This is our home. I live here. This is where we live. It doesn’t help to clean up faster, but less well.
Officials at Boeing say that almost every major U.S. space program owes its success to research and development done in the Santa Susana Mountains. This includes the first human space flight and the Apollo moon landings.
But people in the area wanted the water board to think about the cost.
Marisa Lopez showed the board pictures of her teenage daughter, who had been diagnosed with brain cancer and had to go through 45 rounds of radiation and surgery.
Lopez said, “No one should have to go through this.” “And if it can happen to our family, it can happen to yours, too. I’m telling you about my daughter’s experience because I want you to know that your choice today will affect real people like my daughter… She is neither a number nor a risk that can be taken.
