‘SIMI WE HAVE A PROBLEM’
Hirsch also questioned the lab’s integrity and pointed out that it is a major Department of Energy (DOE) contractor. The area of Rocketdyne where most of the nuclear mishaps occurred was operated by the DOE, which is responsible for cleaning up the mess. It also borders Runkle Canyon, which leads Hirsch to believe that Dade Moeller shouldn’t be overseeing radiation sampling there.
“These concerns about a conflict of interest are without merit,” DTSC’s Riley was subsequently quoted as saying in the daily paper, which dismayed residents who demanded an explanation. Riley later said in an e-mail that “It is not an accurate quote.”
“It is up to the responsible party to select and pay for a consultant,” Riley continued. “The consultant selected by Runkle Canyon LLC is qualified to do the work. Our job as the oversight agency is to review the response plan, approve the plan when we are satisfied that it calls for the use of appropriate and objective, scientific procedures (we would not approve it otherwise), and oversee the performance of the work to make sure it is done correctly and in accordance with the approved plan. If those steps are followed there will be no bias in the data.”
Some of Hirsch’s harshest criticism was aimed at Dade Moeller’s plan to take a “tiny soil sample” every 19 acres based on the lab’s misconstruing of EPA standards regarding soil investigations of potentially polluted properties. The proximity of Runkle Canyon to Rocketdyne, and the fact that 58 soil samples in a previous test all read high for the leukemia-causing radionuclide strontium-90, were among several critical considerations that Dade Moeller ignored, according to Hirsch.
“If you want to hire someone to make your problem go away, you hire Dade Moeller,” Hirsch asserted. “That’s a generality, the reputation. If you read the actual report, I’m afraid it is completely reinforced. Every time you can manipulate an input, make a number go down, they do so.”
Dade Moeller was the go-to lab for a covert set of strontium-90 tests of Runkle Canyon’s soil in 2005, as this reporter previously uncovered. Those tests, which took just five soil samples, were later dismissed as useless by the California Department of Health Services, the very department that conducted the secret limited sampling with Dade Moeller.
Regardless, Riley estimates that KB Home will complete the response plan by late spring, and his department’s final assessment will be done by summer. If DTSC gives the nod, the city will probably tell KB Home that the coast is clear for development.
Even with so much on the line, the Simi Valley City Council absence from the meeting shouldn’t have rankled the residents, according to Behjan. “You can assure those concerned that I attended the meeting on Wednesday to represent the City Council’s interest in this issue, to hear what the commenters had to say, and to inform the City Council about the public’s concerns,” Behjan said. “We will be preparing a comment letter to DTSC to convey the City’s position that the issues raised at the public meeting [will] be considered and addressed.”
Extensive information on Runkle Canyon, including the response plan and how to comment on it, is available on Michael Collins’ Web site EnviroReporter.com.
