Entire Pat-Chem Laboratories report
The Gloves
After the May 18, 2007Pat-Chem sampling, Terry Matheney pours Runkle water onto his gloves
As was reported by Collins in CityBeat’s “The Radiation Rangers,” we don’t know what caused the water to bubble on Matheney’s gloves. But we do know what it looked like as the photos below attest. We understand why we wrote this in the article: “I don’t think we’ve seen numbers that high but we’re not qualified to say if it’s natural or unnatural,” said one Pet-Chem employee who asked to remain anonymous. “That’s the hardest goddamn water in your life. It’s a little bizarre. I would hope not too many people would touch that water.”
As Southwick jokes, “Your gloves didn’t bubble, but you’ve still got trouble.” The Radiation Rangers’ full Pat-Chem report on Runkle Canyon hazardous metals seems to bear that out as does repeatedly high radiation readings in and around Runkle Canyon.
After about 20 seconds, the liquid begins to bubble
Why this liquid bubbles is still a mystery although the sodium content is so high that it resembles sodium hydroxide or lye
EnviroReporter.com
Michael Collins is a multi-awarding-winning investigative journalist who specializes in environmental issues. Since January 2004, Collins has been a Director of the Los Angeles Press Club and the Chair of its Judging Subcommittee. On June 16, 2007, Collins was awarded Journalist of the Year – Print Under 100,000 Circulation honors at the 49th Southern California Journalism Awards for his work for Los Angeles CityBeat & ValleyBeat newspapers. Part of the work submitted to this awards competition included reporting on Runkle Canyon.
EnviroReporter.com also won First Place at the same awards competition for Online News, Story, Feature, Series or Package and Second Place for Designer of the Year – Print or Online, as well as Second Place for Online Design and Layout.
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat broke this story March 10, 2005 with the cover story “Neighborhood Threat – Runkle Canyon is poised to be Simi Valley’s newest neighborhood. But did the city misinterpret the risk of radioactive material in the ground?” We have written a number of follow-up articles that can be found at our Runkle Canyon Investigation page.
