Monday, June 29, 2020 | 1:15 PM to 2:15 PM | ONLINE & DIAL IN

TO PARTICIPATE IN THE JUNE 29 ONLINE MEETING:  
1. Turn on your computer or tablet, open your internet browser
2. Type in https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89459809870?pwd=c1hKYkdJM2lSUG90M0lNbDVzVnIydz09
3. Enter the Participant ID: 032294, if prompted
4. You will have to register to participate. Please complete the registration information;
5. Upon successful registration, you will be given the information needed to access the meeting. Click the link on the screen following the title “Please click this URL to join”. You will be placed in the meeting.

Information on how to participate by phone is available on the meeting agenda.

TO SUBMIT WRITTEN COMMENTS:  
1. While written comments may be submitted by e-mail during the hearing, the public is encouraged to submit comments no later than 10:00 a.m. on Monday, June 29, 2020, to Dillan Murray via email at Dillan.Murray@Ventura.org. Comments may not exceed 250 words. All comments received prior to the deadline which are 250 words or less will be read into the record by staff. Comments greater than 250 words will be distributed to the Cultural Heritage Board at the hearing and included in the public record;
2. Comments submitted must include the following information: a. Name; b. Item you are addressing with your comment; and c. Your mailing address.

BACKSTORY
Located within the boundaries of SSFL is an area that is culturally significant to Native Americans - the 25-acre Burro Flats Site Complex, which includes a cave with pictographs and may have been used in solstice ceremonies. The complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1970’s and is fully protected by the 2010 AOC cleanup agreements.

But NASA, one of three polluters responsible for the cleanup of SSFL that has long tried to get out of its cleanup obligations, has nominated the entire 2,850 acres of SSFL to the National Register of Historic Places by attempting to expand the Burro Flats Complex to include all of SSFL acreage. If approved, the expansion could endanger the entire cleanup of the SSFL, putting nearby communities (and future visitors) at risk of perpetual exposure to SSFL's nuclear and chemical contamination.

It's urgent that as many of us as possible tell the Cultural Heritage Board to postpone any consideration of the Burro Flats Complex nomination until after SSFL is fully cleaned up. The best way to honor the land and protect the public is to restore SSFL to the condition it was in before it was so badly polluted. If NASA had any genuine concern for the cultural significance of the land, it would honor it's commitment to fully clean the site up BEFORE attempting to add  SSFL to the register. Instead, NASA is using the nomination to avoid cleaning up contamination created in part by decades of its own reckless actions.

Again, we are asking that the Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board to POSTPONE consideration of the Burro Flats Complex for the National Registry of Historic Places until AFTER SSFL has been fully cleaned up. We need to make the Cultural Heritage Board aware of the real risks to public health that will persist until SSFL is fully cleaned up. Additional talking points are listed below.

ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS

• Tell the Cultural Heritage Board how you would feel if the SSFL property were to be opened to the public before being fully cleaned up

• By having the entire SSFL property recognized as a Traditional Cultural Property, the clean up may not be enforceable.  This could be an easy way for NASA, the Department of Energy and Boeing to get out of the clean up that they agreed to in the legally binding 2010-AOC. Without the 2010-AOC cleanup the polluters could leave 98-100% of the contamination on site.  

•  NASA claims they want to “preserve the integrity of the site,” including its rock formations, flora, and fauna for the Native Americans that claim the land as a part of their cultural heritage. But in its 70 page nomination document, NASA fails to mention that this land is dangerously contaminated, not even once. Because no mention of any contamination was included in the nomination filing, we need to let the Cultural Heritage Board know what is being left out. NASA’s outrageous omissions are a red flag not to proceed with the nomination at this time.
   

• Failure to mention the desecration of this land is an attempt to hide the true nature of the land’s history from the Cultural Heritage Board, and we believe, the Native American people as well.

• The site will not be safe for Native Americans or local residents until the chemical and radiological contamination is cleaned up. If the land were to be opened to the public before the complete cleanup, per Boeing’s 2015 risk assessment, pollution was severe in some areas of the site  that for every 100 hypothetical people living there, 96 would get cancer.  

• SSFL polluters knew about the cave as they desecrated the land with reckless activities that caused severe soil and groundwater contamination.. Remediation will be far less disruptive than the four rocket test stands, the partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor,  nearly 200 buildings, a shooting range, toxic storage pools, and other structures that were built on the land. 

• We know NASA is being disingenuous when it claims to want to preserve this “pristine” land. The SSFL property is not pristine. A 2012 EPA study of one SSFL area found hundreds of places with radioactive contamination such as plutonium-239/240, cesium-137, and strontium-90, carcinogenic radium, dioxins, chromium, trichloroethylene (TCE), and vinyl chloride. In addition, tens of thousands of rocket tests were conducted at SSFL, resulting in significant chemical contamination. Over 800,000 gallons of trichloroethylene (TCE) were used to flush out rocket test engines and then allowed to seep into the soil and groundwater. The site is also contaminated with perchlorate, dioxins, heavy metals, and volatile and semivolatile organic compounds that can cause harm to human health, sometimes after only one exposure. Lead found in SSFL rainwater runoff has tested 14x above maximum contamination levels. 

• Our community has been fighting for the SSFL clean up for over 30 years. The contaminated water and land has made some of our families sick. 

• The polluted SSFL property must not be left unremediated to poison future generations of Native Americans as they visit the site to reconnect with their culture.  

It may also be helpful to read supplemental comments submitted by the National Resources Defense Council and Committee to Bridge the Gap.