Overview

Evidence

FAQ

  • The Boeing Company owns 80% of the Santa Susana Field Lab. NASA and the US Department of Energy are responsible for the cleanup of the remaining 20% of the site.

    The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) is the agency in charge of enforcing the cleanup.

  • The SSFL was originally used for rocket engine testing for America’s “Race to Space” during the Cold War.

    In the 1950s experimental nuclear energy facilities were added in “Area IV,” including 10 nuclear reactors. One of these, the SRE reactor had a partial meltdown in 1959, in addition to three other reactor accidents. There were no containment structures at any of the reactors.

    Across the SSFL there were toxic and radioactive leaks, spills, fires, open air burn pits, and illegal waste management practices that resulted in an FBI raid in 1996. The SSFL was shut down in 2006.

  • Boeing, NASA, and the Department of Energy are very powerful. They have the money, time, and energy to hire lawyers, lobbyists, and PR teams to sway decision makers.

    In the end, it comes down to money. The “Responsible Parties” value profit more than people.

    The Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), which is in charge of enforcing the SSFL cleanup, has been accused from Environmental Justice sites across CA for catering to polluters instead of protecting people. We’ve seen it at SSFL for decades. The DTSC allows mismanagement of the cleanup in order to gain favor instead of putting our lives first.

  • Yes. Unfortunately. We have federally-funded and peer-reviewed studies to prove that the SSFL is causing diseases in the people living near the site. Dr. Morgenstern’s study shows a 60% higher cancer incidence rate— a definitive study that shows a correlation between the SSFL and cancer.

    We also know from our “Citizen Science Toxic Mapping Project” that children and adults living near the SSFL are still getting incredibly rare cancers- above national averages.

  • You can help us in our quest for the complete cleanup! PASSFL is a small grassroots group and we need help getting the word out.

    • Invite friends over to watch “In the Dark of the Valley” together

    • Sign our Change.org petition

    • Email your elected officials and demand the complete cleanup

    • Join our mailing list for actions and news about the cleanup

Worst Kept Secret

The Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL), formerly known as Rocketdyne, is a Cold War-era testing facility located in the hills outside of Los Angeles. The SSFL was used for rocket engine tests for “America’s Race to Space,” beginning in 1949, and for experimental, top-secret nuclear work that began in 1953. The site was also used for rocket fuel, liquid metals, and chemical laser research.

The site’s complete “background” cleanup deadline of 2017 has come and passed without remediation and the SSFL remains one of California’s most toxic sites. Dangerous chemicals, toxic metals, and radionuclides continue to migrate into local communities through the wind, rain, and during wildfire events.

A federally funded epidemiological study by the University of Michigan determined there was a direct correlation between how close residents lived to the SSFL and increased cancer rates. Rare illnesses and diseases have plagued community members for decades and are believed to be caused by the site’s 350 different contaminants of concern.

The SSFL’s Responsible Parties (the Boeing Company, which owns the majority of the site, NASA, and the Department of Energy) have gone to great lengths to break out of their cleanup agreements to leave most of the site polluted with dangerous amounts of contamination while claiming they are doing a “health-protective” cleanup that could result in 96 out of 100 people to get cancer if they lived on portions of the site and ate the produce grown there.

Parents Against SSFL was founded by mothers of children diagnosed with rare cancers and aims to protect nearby communities from exposure to the site’s toxic and carcinogenic contamination by advocating for the complete remediation of the Santa Susana Field Lab.

HISTORICAL SITE ACTIVITES

  • Plutonium Fuel Facility

  • Liquid Metal Experiments

  • Open-Air Burn Pits

  • Radioactive Waste Management

  • Rocket Engine Testing

  • Uranium Fuel Facility

  • Chemcial Laser Research

  • Radioactive Hot Lab

  • Sodium Reactor Experiment Meltdown

  • Faulty TCE Collection Pools

  • Atomic Space Missiles

  • Illegal Waste Management

  • Employee Shooting Range

  • Experimental Nuclear Reactors

Emmy-Nominated Documentary

In the Dark of the Valley follows moms who learn the Santa Susana Field Lab may have caused their children’s cancer. Currently not available for public viewing.