Comments
SCIENCE POLITICS--Science and new information about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) was what I expected to hear from our CAL EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld at this last Thursday’s Work Group meeting in Simi Valley.
Unfortunately, Secretary Blumenfeld did not present any scientific data on the cleanup of the SSFL. This has made commenting on this greater than two-hour meeting very difficult.
There were no California Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) scientists or WaterBoard scientists at this meeting to confirm or deny what was being presented that night. Therefore, it must be assumed that what was presented that evening was assumed to be factual by Secretary Blumenfeld. But is it? I have a lot of questions for DTSC to answer after this meeting.(Photo above: Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty running the Sodium Reactor Experiment Controls in July 18, 1963 – photo courtesy of “Valley Times Photo Collection,” Los Angeles Public Library.)
THE ‘MELTDOWN MYTH’
Mr. Dan Hirsch of Committee to Bridge the Gap told the story again about how his students at UCLA found documents in the UCLA library on the Sodium Reactor Experiment after the 1979 Three Mile Island incident. He continues to reference this event at the SSFL as both a “meltdown” and as a “partial meltdown” in his same narration.
Mr. Hirsch continues to reference of the incident at Santa Susana at the Sodium Reactor Experiment in July 1959 as a “cover up” of the meltdown. He continues to state at these meetings that the only coverage of this event was on a Friday night where this story was buried.
This is not true because it was reported at other times including in in the article below:
Article – Valley News – Thursday September 10 (1959), Van Nuys, Calif NEWS
That story of the 1959 incident, a reference to a “meltdown”, and any offsite risk posed by that incident has been addressed by both the Federal EPA in their historical site assessment of AREA IV of the SSFL, as well as their sampling of AREA IV for radionuclides. It was concluded that no widespread radiation was released during that 1959 event by the SRE Expert Panel in 2009 as well as by EPA’s sampling of AREA IV between 2010 and 2012.
The audience at the SSFL Workgroup meeting was left to believe that no cleanup of AREA IV of the SSFL has been done. But that is not true.
The Sodium Reactor Experiment site as seen February 2020 –
Photo: The Department of Energy
The history of the SRE is found on the DOE ETEC website here:
If the event at the SRE was so bad – that there was really a “meltdown” at the SRE as Mr. Hirsch alleges – why was Mayor Sam Yorty seen at the control panel of the SRE in July 1963?
- CAL EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld referenced this event at the SSFL Workgroup as a “meltdown”. What does Secretary Blumenfeld really know about the science related to the SSFL site?
- What does Secretary Blumenfeld really understand about the SSFL site and offsite risk from radionuclides which were found by his Federal EPA project team during their sampling of AREA IV of the SSFL between 2010 – 2012?
See: “Was There a Meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory?”
CHILDREN’S CANCER
Interestingly that night, a new message was being put out. Melissa Bumstead, a resident of West Hills, made a presentation related to children’s cancer earlier in the evening. Contrary to what she has stated at numerous meetings with DTSC, the DOE, with Elected Officials, and at West Hills Neighborhood Council meetings, as well as in her petition, she stated that she did not know the source of her daughter’s cancer!
Melissa Bumstead was no longer stating that her child’s cancer was caused by the SSFL site! And Dan Hirsch also carried a similar message. Yet what Dan Hirsch said was that there are carcinogens at the SSFL site, and therefore Grace and Hazel are symbols for other children who have gotten cancer from the SSFL site.
This statement is contrary to the petition that was circulated in the past few years to the Governor, and to the Elected Officials who have written letters of support for the strictest cleanup based upon this petition to the Governor!
Mr. Hirsch stated: “No one is claiming that the cancers that Grace and Hazel had come from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. You can’t identify a particular cancer with a particular cause.”
But yes, that is exactly what the Petition on Change.org by Melissa Bumstead circulated stated: “The secret that gave her daughter cancer – the petition I received December 11, 2017 from Change.org.
This is the petition that was circulated to Governor Gavin Newsom and other elected officials.
- Why are Melissa Bumstead and Mr. Hirsch taking the new approach?
- Do the Governor, Senator Dianne Feinstein, and other Elected Officials know that Melissa Bumstead is no longer making this claim regarding the source of her daughter’s cancer?
- Does CAL EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld believe that children’s cancers were caused by a lack of cleanup at the SSFL site? See: “Children’s Cancer and the Santa Susana Field Laboratory: Physicians - First, Do No Harm.”
PERCHLORATE
At the SSFL Workgroup meeting, a presentation was made by Dan Hirsch about a historic groundwater study made by Dr. Ali Tabidian from CSUN in 2005. Mr. Hirsch referenced offsite migration of perchlorates found in Dayton Canyon in West Hills in 2005 as well as Orcutt Ranch in West Hills.
The problem with this is that DTSC staff has determined that there was no gradient from the SSFL site for the perchlorate found in Dayton Canyon. That perchlorate found there was almost pure product. It is my understanding that DTSC groundwater employees believe that what was found in Dayton Canyon may have come from a flare or a firework. With no isotopic analysis of these perchlorate hits offsite in the past, we do not know the sources of them.
PERCHLORATES IN SIMI VALLEY’S GROUNDWATER
It is not clear to me by remarks made by elected officials related to groundwater in Simi Valley whether they and other elected officials are aware of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board’s meeting in July 2019 in Simi Valley and the conclusions that I got from watching that meeting on the State of California’s website here.
Issue – Perchlorates in the groundwater in Simi Valley and their source.
What was most important about this presentation was that a consulting firm for the Golden State Water Company did a chemical analysis of the perchlorate in the groundwater wells in Simi. They determined that the perchlorate was a blend of two types of perchlorates -- from natural sources found in the soil in the southwest United States, and a mix with Chilean fertilizers that contain perchlorate. They also concluded that the perchlorates were not of the type found at the Santa Susana Field Lab.
Furthermore, DTSC staff showed that the perchlorates are contained onsite, and that they are not migrating from the site into Simi Valley's aquifers.”
The bottom line is that the people in that SSFL Workgroup meeting are being lead, in my opinion, to believe that the perchlorates and other contaminants are migrating from the SSFL site into the Simi Valley aquifer system which has been debunked by Groundwater Experts since 2011 at a series of meetings called:
“Groundwater U”.
This is a link to the opening presentation by an Expert Groundwater Panel on the DTSC website.
These are links to additional presentations made at those meetings:
https://www.dtsc-ssfl.com/files/lib_pub_involve/groundwateru/Session1/64900_What_is_Ground_Water.pdf
https://www.dtsc-ssfl.com/files/lib_pub_involve/groundwateru/Session3/64898_DrBecker.pdf
There are large volumes of information related to groundwater contamination at the SSFL site and groundwater migration from the SSFL site. It is my understanding that groundwater has only migrated to just northeast of the SSFL site to just east of Sage Ranch. To the best of my understanding, it has not migrated to the Simi Valley aquifer system based upon the presentations by the Expert Panel meetings that I attended in 2011. The list of those Experts is found here.
WHAT IS TRUE ABOUT PERCHLORATES
One statement made by Dan Hirsch that is true – OEHHA, the California Office of Human Health Hazard Assessment, has set a regulatory goal of 1 ppm for perchlorate in drinking water.
OEHHA Adopts Updated Public Health Goal for Perchlorate.
“Feb 27, 2015
SACRAMENTO – The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) today published an updated public health goal (PHG) of 1 part per billion (ppb) for perchlorate in drinking water.”
THE ISSUE: THE POWER OF NON-PROFIT GROUPS, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND POLITICAL LOBBYING
I believe that the attendance of Secretary Blumenfeld at this meeting of the SSFL Workgroup was the result of the access that petitioner Melissa Bumstead has had to our Governor’s office. Her petition that implies that her daughter Grace’s cancer was caused by the SSFL site has been signed over 700,000 times. However, as I have stated in previous articles and Ms. Bumstead stated at the recent Work Group meeting, we can’t know the source of her daughter’s cancer or most cancers for that matter.
MY CONCLUSION ABOUT THIS MEETING
CAL EPA Secretary Blumenfeld did not make any scientific presentations. To the best of my knowledge he did not bring any DTSC personnel with him to answer questions regarding the statements being made that evening.
Our Governor should insist that the DTSC SSFL Technical Staff and WaterBoard staff hold joint public meetings in both Simi Valley and in West Hills as soon as possible and do real outreach to all stakeholders. They should address topics including offsite risk, and the other topics that I have discussed above by presenting the most recent scientific data including the Woolsey Fire air quality analysis. We need to hear from the scientists not the politicians relative to the offsite risks.
Perchlorates were not of the type found at the Santa Susana Field Lab.
(Chris Rowe has been a 41-year resident of West Hills, was a former West Hills Neighborhood Council Board Member, and has a B.S. in health education. She can be reached at [email protected].) Edited for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
