The awesome little boy in the photo lived within miles from the Santa Susana Field Lab. Today he is healthy and cancer free. But no child should have to suffer cancer- especially if we can stop it. We can, but we need your help.
We only have until THIS FRIDAY (October 2, 2020) to get thousands of signatures!
To protect kids and families from carcinogenic toxic and radioactive contamination, please take a minute to email a comment to oppose an outrageous attempt to breach the commitment to clean up the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL).
SSFL, the site of a partial nuclear meltdown and tens of thousands of rocket tests, is one of the most polluted places in the country. In 2010 the government promised to clean up all the contamination, by 2017. We are now in 2020 and the soil cleanup hasn’t even begun, and now the government is proposing a new, backdoor way of getting out of the cleanup altogether.
NASA has proposed listing the entire 2,850 acre SSFL property on the National Registry of Historic Places. In a shameful move, the Federal Register notice soliciting public comment doesn’t even disclose that it is SSFL that is under consideration, referring instead merely to a “Burro Flats Cultural District."
If the nomination is approved, NASA intends to claim that the entire 2,850 acres of SSFL soil are exempt from cleanup by grossly misusing a narrow exemption in the cleanup agreement for formally recognized Native American artifacts such as a cave painting or arrowhead.
Formally recognized Native American artifacts are already protected under the SSFL 2010 cleanup agreements. Adding the entire SSFL to the National Registry won’t protect them more, but instead would be used to try to block cleanup of the radioactivity and toxic chemicals polluting the site.
We need to appeal to the "Keeper of the Register" and explain what is at stake for the communities surrounding SSFL and anyone who would want to spend extended time on the property if the nomination passes and the cleanup is obstructed.
Please take 1 minute to email your comment.
Email Address: National_Register_Submissions@nps.gov
Subject Line: “Public Comment on Burro Flats Cultural District, (Ventura County) California
[Feel free to customize this text:]
To the Keeper at the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP);
I urge you to substantively review and reject NASA’s nomination of the “Burro Flats Cultural District.” What is not disclosed is that the proposal is actually for the Santa Susana Field Lab, and that it is one of the most contaminated places in California and the site of one of America’s worst nuclear accidents.
NASA’s nomination of SSFL is intended to obstruct a long-promised and essential cleanup of contamination at SSFL. NASA has long planned to use a listing on the National Register to claim the whole site exempt from cleanup obligations. You should not approve such a step, and certainly not without first conducting an Environmental Impact Statement.
NASA’s proposal to list the whole polluted SSFL site does not meet the fundamental requirements for such a nomination. It is not complete; it fails to even mention the extensive radioactive and toxic chemical contamination at the Santa Susana Field Lab. It is not accurate; it claims the site has full integrity and is in the condition it was in when Native Americans occupied it centuries ago, when in fact it is heavily impacted by accidents at numerous nuclear reactors, including a partial meltdown, and tens of thousands of rocket tests. It thus also does not meet the requirements for site integrity. The site should be, as promised, fully cleaned up and restored to the condition it was in before being polluted, and only then considered for listing on the NRHP.
To leave out the history of the toxic releases from tens of thousands of rocket and missile engine tests, numerous nuclear accidents, and the reckless dumping of radioactive and other hazardous substances on the property is to fail to tell the truth, as required, about the land proposed to be listed. NASA is seeking a NRHP designation not to protect the land or the Native American artifacts, but to protect themselves from ever having to clean up their horrendous environmental catastrophe on the property.
Ventura County has formally opposed the listing. Under the law, the process is supposed to stop if the County in which the site is located is opposed.
Please decline to consider listing the Santa Susana Field Lab on the NRHP until the full cleanup has been completed.
Sincerely,
[your name]