Newsom’s Toxic Secret
PEER Press Release
Oakland —After months of tough talk, the Newsom administration has quietly entered into confidential negotiations to allow Boeing Company to eviscerate an agreement requiring a full clean-up of the highly polluted Santa Susana Field Laboratory, according to documents posted today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The negotiations with Boeing, one of the responsible parties, is the second attempt by Newsom operatives in recent months to let responsible parties off the hook from Santa Susana clean-up obligations… Read more > Newsom Backs Off Santa Susana Clean-Up Guarantee
Newsom ADMINISTRATION’S secret meetings with Boeing: A summary by Parents vs ssfl
On February 11, 2021 the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) discovered Governor Newsom Administration’s plans to allow secret negotiations with Boeing and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) in order to covertly kill the 2007 cleanup agreements to one of America’s worst nuclear meltdowns, the Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL).
It would be like a divorced woman secretly going to a mediator ten years after the divorce was finalized so she could renegotiate the terms. She now will get 99% of everything. Afterwards she tells her ex-husband the results and he has no option to change it. Our situation like that but much, much worse.
Our kids are getting cancer from Boeing’s contamination at the Santa Susana Field Lab. To Boeing, this is just a chance spend less money on the cleanup and the easiest way to do that is through secret mediations without public accountability. But for us, our children are dying, our families are being devastated, our community torn apart.
Background: Boeing is one of the primary owners of the Santa Susana Field Lab and is financially responsible for the majority of the chemical contamination on site. In 2007 Boeing entered into a legal agreement with California’s DTSC to cleanup the site to meet EPA safety requirements that were also consistent with Ventura County zoning purposes. In other words, Boeing agreed to clean up the toxic contamination so that it would be hypothetically safe enough for people to live there and eat the produce grown there. Boeing agreed to completely pay for the remediation of their portion of the site. The soil cleanup was to be finished by 2017, but to date, no significant cleanup has even begun.
See the original document in the DTSC data library.
The Santa Susana Field Lab is horrifically contaminated. In 2015 Boeing conducted a risk assessment at the SSFL that showed if people were to live on the site, and eat the produce grown there, three in ten people would get cancer. In another area of the site the pollution was so severe that if people lived there and ate the produce, nine out of ten people would get cancer. Yet Boeing has spent the last fourteen years trying to evade their cleanup agreements. They’ve wined and dined with Governor Newsom and have lobbied Cal EPA and the DTSC. Boeing donated $56,000 to Newsom in campaign donations from 2009 to 2020.
The 2007 comprehensive cleanup agreement would also protect the community surrounding the SSFL, as contamination was shown to leave the lab via wind, rain, and through wildfires. At a 2019 DTSC Oversight Hearing Committee, California EPA Secretary Jarred Blumenfeld said, “Their goal is, if you have a less stringent cleanup standard, and this makes sense to all of us, you pay less to clean it up. So there’s a direct correlation between the amount of money they pay and the level of cleanup we receive. Boeing has another portion of the site and we need to make sure they adhere to their obligations which are also legally binding with us.”
Secret Meetings: Peer discovered that the DTSC had agreed to meet with Boeing, in private, to negotiate new terms for the site’s cleanup. They intend to persuade the DTSC to lower the cleanup agreements to a lesser standard that would leave up to 99% of the contamination on site permanently. Boeing will also make the argument that they shouldn’t be required to cleanup the water to such a high standard as they claim the water won’t be used as drinking water.
The groundwater could take centuries to completely remediate but Boeing only spent a few years before shutting off the water remediation pumps. 30% of Simi Valley residents drink partial well water which are contaminated with high levels of perchlorates. The wells used are directly below the SSFL and according to a 2006 report by expert Dr. Tabidean, the contamination from the SSFL almost certainly impacts the water of Simi Valley. Therefore, the SSFL water is being used as drinking water, but Boeing refuses to admit this.
Get Involved: We are asking the public to get vocal about how dishonest, illegal, and harmful the secret negotiations are. Please help us hold Governor Newsom and CalEPA Jared Blumenfeld responsible to protect the families living near the Santa Susana Field Lab.
Take action on Social Media
#BoeingBoughtNewsom #PeopleNotPolluters #SSFL #Newsom
Call
(916) 445-2841
Sample call script: “My name is _______ and I live in _________, CA. I am asking that Governor Newsom cancel all secret negotiations between Boeing and the Department of Toxic Substances Control, in regards to the Santa Susana Field Lab cleanup. Newsom must enforce the cleanup to protect the community and not allow Boeing to go back on it’s cleanup obligations. Thank you.”
Email Newsom (and his head of the CA EPA):
gavin@gavinnewsom.com and SectyBlumenfeld@calepa.ca.gov
Subject line: STOP THE SECRET NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN THE DTSC AND BOEING
Dear Governor Newsom and CalEPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld,
The secret negotiations between the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and Boeing over the Santa Susana Field Lab cleanup (SSFL), which would overturn years of cleanup promises, is unacceptable and MUST NOT HAPPEN.
Before Governor Newsom was elected, he promised residents that he would make the SSFL cleanup a top priority. It saddens me that this is what it’s come to – but it’s not too late for Governor Newsom to do the right thing for his constituents here around SSFL. The full cleanup that Boeing agreed to in 2007 will comprehensively clean the site and will protect the families living near SSFL from Boeing’s carcinogenic waste. Already dozens of local children have been diagnosed with rare forms of cancer. They drink and play in the toxic water that runs off the site into our municipal water supply – the very same groundwater that the DTSC now intends to let Boeing walk away from.
Boeing’s big contributions to Gov. Newsom’s election campaigns shouldn’t mean they can buy their way out of the cleanup. DTSC exists to protect the public, not cater to polluters’ whims. DTSC has an obligation to the citizens of California to enforce the legally binding cleanup agreements. The cleanup is already four years past its deadline. We can’t wait any longer.
This isn’t just illegal. It’s immoral. Children are sick and dying. Do the right thing and publicly renounce the secret meetings and enforce the cleanup agreements. Hold Boeing accountable. Protect our community.
Sincerely,
________________________ from ________________ (city), _______________ (state)