Empty Promises
DTSC Oversight Committee Hearing
DTSC Oversight Hearing Committee 2019: The video (and transcript) filled our community with hope that California EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld would reform the DTSC and get cleanups across California back on track. He specifically discusses meeting with residents living near the Santa Susana Field Lab in this clip. The transcript can be read here.
SSFL Work Group promises
SSFL Workgroup Meeting 2020: Secretary Blumenfeld made promises to our community at the February 13, 2020 SSFL Workshop. As Jared flew down to speak with us, we were sure that all of his promises were sincere. Not a single was fufilled during his time as CalEPA Secretary.
“Consent agreements they're enforceable in court. They're written in such a legal way that they can be enforced, but they have not been sufficiently enforced by the State of California, and that will change.”
“Those are legally binding agreements. We will hold them to those agreements. And as I said, but I will say it again: our job is to regulate, not to negotiate.”
“What we have in front of us, which I’ll describe, is agreements and we’re really not here to negotiate. This is not about negotiation, this is about implementation…”
“We don’t have a lot of tolerance for having a negotiation. All the meetings that I go to, they’re like, are we opening up the Consent Order? And the answer is no. Are we opening up the Agreement on Consent, which I’ll talk through in just a minute, and the answer is no.”
EJ Protest 2021
California Environmental Justice Coalition Protest: Over twenty environmental justice groups, from across California, met to protest in front of the California EPA building, accusing the CalEPA and DTSC of “being in bed with the polluters” instead of protecting people.