EDITORIAL NOT TOO LATE PAYOUTS, LAND CLEANUP ARE THE RIGHT THING FOR SANTA SUSANA.THERE is no statute of limitations A type of federal or state law that restricts the time within which legal proceedings may be brought. Statutes of limitations, which date back to early Roman Law, are a fundamental part of European and U.S. law. on doing the right thing. And when it comes to the legacy of the contamination of the former Rocketdyne site between Simi Valley Simi Valley (sē`mē, sĭm`ē), city (1990 pop. 100,217), Ventura co., SW Calif. in an oil, fruit, and farm region; laid out 1887, inc. 1969. and Chatsworth, the right thing is a full cleanup and adequate reparations reparations, payments or other compensation offered as an indemnity for loss or damage. Although the term is used to cover payments made to Holocaust survivors and to Japanese Americans interned during World War II in so-called relocation camps (and used as well to to the victims of the contamination. Both of those these came closer to fruition last week. The U.S. Department of Energy said it would stop the controversial cleanup at the former nuclear research site and take another look at doing the job right. And on the same day, California Sens. Barbara Boxer Barbara Levy Boxer (born November 11, 1940) is an American politician and the current junior U.S. Senator from the State of California. A member of the Democratic Party, Boxer was first elected to the U.S. and Dianne Feinstein Dianne Goldman Berman Feinstein (born June 22, 1933) is the senior U.S. Senator from California, having held office as a senator since 1992. She is a member of the Democratic Party. introduced legislation to get payouts for workers at the Santa Susana Santa Susana can refer to several places:
The proposed Santa Susana Fair Compensation Act of 2007 would allow employees and their families who worked at the field lab for at least 250 days and developed a serious illness as a result of exposure to the radiation or toxins at the site to receive compensation of between $150,000 and $250,000. If it passes, it would go a long way toward doing the right thing for people who were injured by working for the lab -- a site that had 10 nuclear reactors, one partial meltdown, and an open-air pit where workers burned radioactive and chemical waste. As for the decision by the DOE to stop demolition of buildings at the field lab and take the time to fill out an environmental impact statement, the right thing wasn't the agency's decision. It was precipitated by a court order. The DOE had planned to just leave 99 percent of the contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. soil at the field lab site -- a fact that alarmed environmentalists, local residents and lawmakers. But in May, a judge ordered the agency to stop its version of a cleanup and conduct a full cleanup before the land was deemed safe for use. It was the right thing to do for land that will one day be developed for human use. Doing the right thing in regards to the Santa Susana Field Lab has been decades in the making -- it was nearly 20 years ago that the Daily News exposed how contaminated the site was. While fixes have been slow in coming, it's never too late to do what's right. |
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