L.A. JOINS LAWSUIT CHALLENGING DOE'S FIELD-LAB CLEANUP.Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh and James Nash Staff Writers Hoping to protect west San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. residents from radioactive and chemical contamination See: contamination. at the Santa Susana Santa Susana can refer to several places:
Lab neighbors and watchdogs charge the DOE has broken promises to thoroughly clean 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. site, and now plans to leave 99 percent of the contaminated soil on hilltop property that could be used for homes. That level of contamination is 19,000 times greater than U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), independent agency of the U.S. government, with headquarters in Washington, D.C. It was established in 1970 to reduce and control air and water pollution, noise pollution, and radiation and to ensure the safe handling and standards. The radioactivity could pose a risk of cancer to one out of 50 residents, according to the lawsuit. ``These are radioactive chemicals on the site, and the Bush administration wants to leave the chemicals there and build housing,'' Delgadillo said. ``I don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. what I'm more offended by: the Bush administration reneging on a promise, or the Bush administration turning its backs on the community.'' The DOE has already rejected pleas by neighbors, activists and California's two senators for a more extensive cleanup, but watchdogs hope legal and political muscle of the nation's second-largest city will up the ante. ``You basically have the city of Los Angeles
DOE officials have repeatedly said they are following all state and federal safety laws, and they rejected charges that the site will be dangerous. ``If we had a 1-in-50 cancer risk, some other agency would be saying something to us,'' DOE Project Manager Michael Lopez said. ``No other agency has come to us and said you have a 1-in-50 cancer risk.'' The 2,800-acre lab sits in the Simi Hills in Ventura County, near the Los Angeles city limits. From the 1940s to 1988, the government conducted nuclear testing on a 90-acre section of the lab called the Energy Technology Engineering Center. It was home to 10 nuclear reactors, one of which experienced a partial meltdown, and an open-air pit where workers burned radioactive and chemical waste. The Daily News first disclosed in 1989 that a DOE survey found massive amounts of radioactive and chemical contamination at the lab, prompting a cleanup that has cost $192 million so far and is expected to cost an additional $52 million before its scheduled completion in 2007. The lab's neighbors distrust the DOE's cleanup, and in the 1990s the Environmental Protection Agency was brought in as an independent consultant to review the DOE's work. In 1995, the Clinton administration's secretary of energy signed an agreement promising to follow the EPA's stringent cleanup standards at all former nuclear sites. The lawsuit filed Thursday charges the DOE violated that agreement when it chose the less stringent of two cleanup plans, one that would leave at most a 15 milirem-per-year extra dose of radiation to someone living on the site for 40 years. That would present a 1-in-3,333 cancer risk. Kerry Cavanaugh, (818) 713-3746 kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com CAPTION(S): map Map: SANTA SUSANA FIELD LAB SOURCE: United States Department of Energy The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government responsible for energy policy and nuclear safety. Its purview includes the nation's nuclear weapons program, nuclear reactor production for the United States Navy, Gregg Miller/Staff Artist |
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