May 18; and “Where the Bodies Are Buried,” May 25] detailed the VA’s and UCLA’s use of the land as a dumping
ground for at least 13 different radioactive isotopes and poisons for 16 years during the height of the Cold War –
many of them in the bodies and tissues of animal and human radiation experimentation subjects. The impacted land
includes part of the Barrington Dog Park, an accessible ravine next to a VA field used by hundreds of soccer-playing
kids, and the athletic grounds of the private Brentwood School.
The VA reacted to the report by saying it contained “a great deal of misinformation and misrepresentation of the facts
about the Veterans Affairs’ property,” according to the center’s director, Charles M. Dorman [Letters, June 15]. Local
leaders had a distinctly different reaction.
“I am concerned about the possible environmental hazards at the VA site,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) told
CityBeat. The nuke dump lies in Waxman’s congressional district. “In order to understand the extent of the problem,
earlier this year I wrote to Secretary [James] Nicholson asking the Department [of Veterans Affairs] for all related
documents. I hope these materials will allow us to evaluate the extent of the problem and determine what follow up is
needed, including testing and remediation.”
“The investigation raised a lot of very troubling questions about the environmental conditions and the public safety
implications of those lands,” added Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “Somehow this needs to be
independently verified. The federal agencies responses have basically been ‘there’s nothing to this,’ but I think it would
be appropriate for the Congress … to get an independent study of what’s going on under the topsoil over there -- if for
no other reason than to get an independent validation of the federal government’s position or an objective conclusion
that what they are saying is not true and that there is a hazard there that needs to be mitigated.”
On June 13, over two dozen citizens gathered at a meeting of the Friends of Barrington Dog Park in Brentwood to
discuss the CityBeat investigation. Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the tony Los Angeles neighborhood,
had his district director and senior counsel, Norman Kulla, read a letter that the councilman had written to Nicholson
earlier that day. “I share (citizens’) concern and am committed to resolving, beyond any doubt, that all hazardous
contamination at the West LA VA is identified, contained and cleaned up,” Rosendahl wrote. “It is imperative to be sure
that no health risk exists, for either the veterans or employees on site, for local residents who recreate on the site, or
for residents who reside adjacent to the site.”
“As a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Union of Concerned Scientists, I
suggest that we need a full radiation survey of the entire dog park, large area and small,” said dog park committee
member Roy Danchick.
A noted scientist with 40 years in the aerospace industry, Danchick added, “Radioactive and biohazardous material
threats to public health are not issues that we can be complacent about. Further, I believe that it is the joint
responsibility of the Veterans Administration and UCLA to fund such a survey. They are the responsible parties.”
Before the expose, the south field of the dog park had been closed for reseeding – an area directly over the dump,
according to archival VA maps of the area obtained by CityBeat that are posted on the investigation’s supporting
website, EnviroReporter.com. Prior to the affected field’s June 23 reopening, dog park denizens expressed that the
section should be reopened with some sort of warning signs.
The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, which runs the off-leash commons, disagreed and
issued a statement discounting the dangers of the dump: “Unless it can be shown that the VA was withholding
significant information on their biomedical waste disposal practices on the land that was developed as a public park
site that would change the final determination of the EIR from ‘no unacceptable public health risks exist’ to a more
unfavorable conclusion, then there is no clear or prudent reason to conduct a major and potentially expensive site
investigation and monitoring program.”
“I read (CityBeat’s) article but I didn’t see a lot of evidence,” said Jim Combs, assistant general manager of Recreation
and Parks. “I think we are concerned that there might be something, but there is nothing at this point. The VA has
committed to do additional study and the (L.A. City) Council office is interested.”
Word that the VA had committed to a new study of the dump was news to CityBeat, considering that they declared that
the site was safe. Combs related that he had seen a VA official on KABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News several weeks
ago saying just that. “Even though they don’t have the funds set aside to do this, they will find the money and conduct
an additional study so they can put the community’s mind at ease,” Combs said.
“The Council office saw that (TV news report) and we’ve had discussions with the VA since then where they’ve
acknowledged that that’s the direction they are going in,” Combs added. “Now, they got a little upset when the
councilman sent the letter to Washington D.C. and they said, ‘Well, that kind of derails us from acting locally. We now
have to wait for direction from Washington because (Rosendahl) escalated this.’”
The maverick councilman has his defenders. “We want to support Bill Rosendahl in his letter,” said Keith Jeffreys, vice
president of Citizens For Veterans Rights, a group opposed to Bush Administration plans to develop the site. “We
would like complete transparency with regard to the property and the disposal of anything on that property.”
Repeated requests for VA comment for this article were ignored as were solicited comments from Brentwood School.
Even parents who send their kids to the private institution, where tuition tops out at $23,400 for grades 7-12, were
hesitant to say anything about the nuke dump – even though the school’s multi-million-dollar sports complex sits on the
affected site, according to the VA contractor evaluating the site for development, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking from that point of view, so your best option is to find someone who doesn’t
actually have an official role through the school and get their viewpoint on it,” said Robin Venturelli, former chair of the
local Parents Association, before abruptly hanging up.
Others aren’t so reticent to talk. “Given the decades-long cover-up and the continuing reluctance of public officials to
characterize the contamination, simple prudence dictates that a new environmental impact evaluation takes place,”
said Dr. Bennett Ramberg, a Los Angeles-based nuclear expert and commentator. “Recent CityBeat revelations
exposing radioactive debris on the surface of the burial site make the case for reopening of the environmental review
all the more compelling. The failure of authorities to follow up would be an act of gross negligence inconsistent with
their duty to preserve public health and safety.”
ground for at least 13 different radioactive isotopes and poisons for 16 years during the height of the Cold War –
many of them in the bodies and tissues of animal and human radiation experimentation subjects. The impacted land
includes part of the Barrington Dog Park, an accessible ravine next to a VA field used by hundreds of soccer-playing
kids, and the athletic grounds of the private Brentwood School.
The VA reacted to the report by saying it contained “a great deal of misinformation and misrepresentation of the facts
about the Veterans Affairs’ property,” according to the center’s director, Charles M. Dorman [Letters, June 15]. Local
leaders had a distinctly different reaction.
“I am concerned about the possible environmental hazards at the VA site,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) told
CityBeat. The nuke dump lies in Waxman’s congressional district. “In order to understand the extent of the problem,
earlier this year I wrote to Secretary [James] Nicholson asking the Department [of Veterans Affairs] for all related
documents. I hope these materials will allow us to evaluate the extent of the problem and determine what follow up is
needed, including testing and remediation.”
“The investigation raised a lot of very troubling questions about the environmental conditions and the public safety
implications of those lands,” added Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky. “Somehow this needs to be
independently verified. The federal agencies responses have basically been ‘there’s nothing to this,’ but I think it would
be appropriate for the Congress … to get an independent study of what’s going on under the topsoil over there -- if for
no other reason than to get an independent validation of the federal government’s position or an objective conclusion
that what they are saying is not true and that there is a hazard there that needs to be mitigated.”
On June 13, over two dozen citizens gathered at a meeting of the Friends of Barrington Dog Park in Brentwood to
discuss the CityBeat investigation. Councilman Bill Rosendahl, who represents the tony Los Angeles neighborhood,
had his district director and senior counsel, Norman Kulla, read a letter that the councilman had written to Nicholson
earlier that day. “I share (citizens’) concern and am committed to resolving, beyond any doubt, that all hazardous
contamination at the West LA VA is identified, contained and cleaned up,” Rosendahl wrote. “It is imperative to be sure
that no health risk exists, for either the veterans or employees on site, for local residents who recreate on the site, or
for residents who reside adjacent to the site.”
“As a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Union of Concerned Scientists, I
suggest that we need a full radiation survey of the entire dog park, large area and small,” said dog park committee
member Roy Danchick.
A noted scientist with 40 years in the aerospace industry, Danchick added, “Radioactive and biohazardous material
threats to public health are not issues that we can be complacent about. Further, I believe that it is the joint
responsibility of the Veterans Administration and UCLA to fund such a survey. They are the responsible parties.”
Before the expose, the south field of the dog park had been closed for reseeding – an area directly over the dump,
according to archival VA maps of the area obtained by CityBeat that are posted on the investigation’s supporting
website, EnviroReporter.com. Prior to the affected field’s June 23 reopening, dog park denizens expressed that the
section should be reopened with some sort of warning signs.
The City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation and Parks, which runs the off-leash commons, disagreed and
issued a statement discounting the dangers of the dump: “Unless it can be shown that the VA was withholding
significant information on their biomedical waste disposal practices on the land that was developed as a public park
site that would change the final determination of the EIR from ‘no unacceptable public health risks exist’ to a more
unfavorable conclusion, then there is no clear or prudent reason to conduct a major and potentially expensive site
investigation and monitoring program.”
“I read (CityBeat’s) article but I didn’t see a lot of evidence,” said Jim Combs, assistant general manager of Recreation
and Parks. “I think we are concerned that there might be something, but there is nothing at this point. The VA has
committed to do additional study and the (L.A. City) Council office is interested.”
Word that the VA had committed to a new study of the dump was news to CityBeat, considering that they declared that
the site was safe. Combs related that he had seen a VA official on KABC Channel 7 Eyewitness News several weeks
ago saying just that. “Even though they don’t have the funds set aside to do this, they will find the money and conduct
an additional study so they can put the community’s mind at ease,” Combs said.
“The Council office saw that (TV news report) and we’ve had discussions with the VA since then where they’ve
acknowledged that that’s the direction they are going in,” Combs added. “Now, they got a little upset when the
councilman sent the letter to Washington D.C. and they said, ‘Well, that kind of derails us from acting locally. We now
have to wait for direction from Washington because (Rosendahl) escalated this.’”
The maverick councilman has his defenders. “We want to support Bill Rosendahl in his letter,” said Keith Jeffreys, vice
president of Citizens For Veterans Rights, a group opposed to Bush Administration plans to develop the site. “We
would like complete transparency with regard to the property and the disposal of anything on that property.”
Repeated requests for VA comment for this article were ignored as were solicited comments from Brentwood School.
Even parents who send their kids to the private institution, where tuition tops out at $23,400 for grades 7-12, were
hesitant to say anything about the nuke dump – even though the school’s multi-million-dollar sports complex sits on the
affected site, according to the VA contractor evaluating the site for development, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“I wouldn’t feel comfortable speaking from that point of view, so your best option is to find someone who doesn’t
actually have an official role through the school and get their viewpoint on it,” said Robin Venturelli, former chair of the
local Parents Association, before abruptly hanging up.
Others aren’t so reticent to talk. “Given the decades-long cover-up and the continuing reluctance of public officials to
characterize the contamination, simple prudence dictates that a new environmental impact evaluation takes place,”
said Dr. Bennett Ramberg, a Los Angeles-based nuclear expert and commentator. “Recent CityBeat revelations
exposing radioactive debris on the surface of the burial site make the case for reopening of the environmental review
all the more compelling. The failure of authorities to follow up would be an act of gross negligence inconsistent with
their duty to preserve public health and safety.”
 | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  | |  |
Digging Up the Dirt
'CityBeat' expose on Brentwood nuke dump inspires calls for
new investigations by local and federal officials
(Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat - June 29, 2006)
CityBeat’s five-year investigation into a nuclear and chemical
dump on the northern reaches of Brentwood’s sprawling Veterans
Administration campus has sparked widespread calls for further
investigation that have now been taken up by officials from city
council to the U.S. Congress. The articles [“Real Hot Property,”
'CityBeat' expose on Brentwood nuke dump inspires calls for
new investigations by local and federal officials
(Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat - June 29, 2006)
CityBeat’s five-year investigation into a nuclear and chemical
dump on the northern reaches of Brentwood’s sprawling Veterans
Administration campus has sparked widespread calls for further
investigation that have now been taken up by officials from city
council to the U.S. Congress. The articles [“Real Hot Property,”
