Search Results for 'Dade Moeller'

A Keen Observer

Internet forums are strange places – virtual clubs where unseen individuals share information and opinions freely, passionately, and quite often, anonymously. Some give their real names and identifiers, others use nicknames or handles.
Anonymity on the internet can serve an important purpose – for example, victims of domestic violence in an online support group, individuals [...]

Runkle Canyon Tanks

For the first time in seven years of residents battling KB Home’s massive Runkle Canyon development in the shadow of the old Rocketdyne lab over pollution problems in the canyon, company representatives and the community face off at a Simi Valley Planning Commission meeting over a five-year option to build permit extension. The fur flies as the developer’s representative and his attorney, perhaps flustered by the vocal opposition to the project, proceed to embark on an odyssey of ‘factual inaccuracies’ about the controversial building scheme.

Runkle Roulette

KB Home goes for a five year extension on a construction permit to build 461 residences in Runkle Canyon. Problem is that new contamination has been found on the site and evidence that the developer has blocked government requests for Clean Water Act data.

There Lies the Fault

After extensive investigation, EnviroReporter.com may have discovered the source of Runkle Canyon’s heavy metal nightmare which has stalled KB Home’s development plans for over two years – Rocketdyne’s old polluted Empire State Atomic Development Authority site sits on top of Burro Flats Fault which transports toxins down into the canyon that the Radiation Rangers want tested.

Riley’s Revenge

Former Rocketdyne toxics chief, Norman E. Riley, blasts Department of Toxics Substances Control as an agency “where obfuscation, abdication of authority, collusion, and other contemptible behaviors currently trump honesty and integrity.” In a fiery e-mail to EnviroReporter.com, Riley admits misleading community regarding Runkle Canyon and that no public comments about cleanup plan were used.

EnviroReporter.com’s Runkle Canyon Comments Analysis

Will new Department of Toxic Substances Control leadership in Runkle Canyon mean that DTSC will actually take citizen and media concerns seriously over development of this property that borders the nuclear area of Rocketdyne? EnviroReporter.com analyzes what the department has previously ignored as we conclude our seven-part series “Railroading Runkle Canyon?”

EnviroReporter.com Runkle Canyon Comments

When Runkle Canyon developer KB Home gave the Department of Toxic Substances Control 41 environmental reports on its property, EnviroReporter.com analyzed each one and presented its 28 pages of findings to DTSC in July 2008. The department ignored most of these analyses which we subsequently submitted to DTSC in February 2009 as public comments to the Runkle Canyon Response Plan. Will the department again ignore these questions and comments now that there is new leadership for the Runkle Canyon site?

The Aerospace Runkle Canyon Comments

D’Lanie Blaze questions developer KB Home’s use of controversial lab Dade Moeller & Associates to retest Runkle Canyon for strontium-90. Blaze reminds then-Department of Toxic Substances Control project head, Norm Riley, that Dade Moeller himself claimed that he’s “just not worried about radiation exposure because of the likelihood that we’ll soon have a cure for cancer.” Blaze burns DTSC over issue and questions if the Response Plan is a “dog and pony show.”

ACME Runkle Canyon Comments

Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education’s founder and director Bill Bowling says that the Runkle Canyon cleanup plan is inadequate and doesn’t address toxic trichlorethylene being found on the property. Bowling calls out city of Simi Valley for not caring about issue and says that developer KB Home has a questionable environmental track record including building on land without removing unexploded bombs from a former bombing range.

Cleanup Rocketdyne Runkle Canyon Comments

Walsh’s 13 pages of “Comments on the Runkle Canyon Response Plan” include photographs and maps. This well-crafted document clearly illustrates Walsh’s concerns about the canyon. Her expertise and ability to crunch numbers, analyze data, and conceptualize how it all stacks up in the grand scheme of things are remarkable.

Radiation Rangers Runkle Canyon Comments

“I sometimes wonder if we’re talking about the same place,” says the Reverend John Southwick of the Radiation Rangers. “Not only are DTSC’s orders to KB Home inadequate, unless the instructions for more radiation testing are significant; the department missed the most important stuff.”

Runkle and the Rule of Law

“What is the purpose of us going to all that work trying to get to the bottom of this if it’s going to be ignored?” said “The Good Reverend John” Southwick, one of the Radiation Rangers. “This is serious business. Each and every one of our points is based in sound science and must be addressed by the department when DTSC gives KB Home the marching orders to clean up Runkle Canyon.”

‘SIMI WE HAVE A PROBLEM’

Runkle Canyon radiation report spells trouble
by Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – February 19, 2009
Nearly 50 people filled Simi Valley City Hall chambers late last month in a much-anticipated Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) meeting about environmental conditions in Runkle Canyon. The 1,595-acre property is where KB Home hopes to build 461 homes. The [...]

Simi, We Have a Problem

Historic meeting of the Department of Toxic Substances Control and citizens of the Simi and San Fernando valleys takes place January 28, 2009 in Simi Valley City Council Chambers. Committee to Bridge the Gap president, Dan Hirsch, rips Response Plan as “propoganda” and says 2004 Environmental Impact Report for Runkle Canyon, approved by City Council, was “fraudulent.”

HOT PROPERTY

Runkle Canyon developers claim mysterious new state tests have erased previously high levels of Radioactive contamination
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles ValleyBeat – January 19, 2006

Much like Ahmanson Ranch, the huge housing development planned near the Los Angeles County border with Ventura that was instead turned into a park, proposed construction at Runkle Canyon faces its own [...]

HOT PROPERTY – Annotated

Runkle Canyon developers claim mysterious new state tests have erased previously high levels of radioactive contamination
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles ValleyBeat – January 19, 2006

Much like Ahmanson Ranch, the huge housing development planned near the Los Angeles County border with Ventura that was instead turned into a park, proposed construction at Runkle Canyon faces its own [...]

DOWN THE TEST TUBES

KB Home’s Runkle Canyon radiation tests questioned as more groundwater pollution is found and developer negotiates cleanup agreement with state
By Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – January 17, 2008
As soon as the Rev. John Southwick heard the latest round of Runkle Canyon soil testing for the leukemia-causing radionuclide strontium-90 (Sr-90) came back low, he started to question [...]

Runkle Canyon Geocon I & Limited Sampling – 9/06/05

(Click here to see Geocon report on the DTSC website)
P. 5/150: “Analytical results of surface water samples collected from East and West Seeps in Fishtail Area that are not produced in a report. Samples were collected by Miller Brooks on April 5, 2005.”
P. 7/150: “Perchlorate was detected at a concentration of 0.33 micrograms per liter (μg/l) in [...]

Down the Test Tubes

KB Home’s lab Dade Moeller & Associates has produced a 10-page report that shows strontium-90 radiation only a quarter of “background” for the area, and a fraction of previous sampling results. Simi Valley’s “split-samples,” to double-check KB Homes’ tests for accuracy, came in over a hundred times less than previous samplings.