We need your help!
There are two more rounds of meetings: The Ventura County Board of Supervisors Meeting on Tuesday, July 28th at 1:30pm and the State Historic Resources Commission meeting on August 14th, which is the critical decision meeting. If NASA’s nomination passes, it could severely limit, or even kill, the Santa Susana Field Lab’s cleanup.
You can resend the same 250-word comment for the July 28th meeting (or slightly alter it) to the Ventura County Supervisors Board at clerkoftheboard@ventura.org. Please include in the Subject Line of your e-mail the words “Time Certain Item 1:30 PM Read at Meeting.” We’ll send out the Zoom meeting information as soon as we have it.
The Zoom link is finally live to register
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/1115955216858/WN_pMZ6flypRMWVAVqb4NdQZQ
The registration page has a part where you enter if there is an item you want to speak on and you list the item #, we are item #71 on the agenda
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PLEASE SAVE THE DATE, AUGUST 14th for our last chance to stop NASA from weaseling out of their 2010 cleanup agreements.
ADDITIONAL TALKING POINTS (OPTIONAL)
In order for the nomination to qualify for NRPH listing, the proposed registration cannot conflict with the public health, safety, and general welfare (Ventura County Ordinance no. 4225-Section 1364-10
The proposal for listing does not meet the eligibility requirements because: The nomination is inaccurate, as it incorrectly describes the site as unimpacted and intact when in fact it is one of the most contaminated sites in the nation
The proposal for listing does not meet the eligibility requirements because: The nomination is incomplete, as it fails to include any information about the extensive radioactive and toxic chemical contamination and the intensive history of nuclear and rocket testing at the site
The proposal for listing does not meet the eligibility requirements because: The nomination provides no defensible rationale for the proposed boundary matching that of SSFL
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.
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 is so 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.