DIGGING UP THE DIRT
Word that the VA had committed to a new study of the dump was news to CityBeat, considering that it had previously declared that the site was safe. Combs related that he had seen a VA official on KABC 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 multimillion-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 take 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.”
