Search Results for 'nuclear'
THE PROMISED LAND
Gov. Schwarzenegger terminates the uncertainty of Rocketdyne cleanup with historic move that keeps California in charge – for now
By Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – January 24, 2008
It was a move as deft as any he has ever made in his action films, this time potentially saving countless real lives. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger empowered the state’s [...]
HOT ZONE
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly “Offbeat” column – November 9, 2000
OffBeat was sitting at home last month, when the phone rang. Jonathan Parfrey, of the Los Angeles branch of Physicians for Social Responsibility, was on the line. “Aerojet’s on fire!” he blurted out. As longtime reporters on hazardous contamination at the defense-contracting giant’s Chino Hills installation, [...]
THE FEELING IS MUTUAL
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles ValleyBeat – July 10, 2003
ONE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S most bitterly contested development projects took a radical and unexpected turn this week, stunning environmentalists and open-space advocates and possibly indicating a change of heart by developers. On June 7, Washington Mutual, Inc. announced the departure of Guy Gniadek, who was head of the Ahmanson Ranch [...]
ROCKETDYNE RANCH
The battle over the massive Ahmanson Ranch housing development heats up amid growing concerns about possible water and soil contamination from nearby Rocketdyne.
By Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – December 12, 2002
July 1959. Eastern Ventura County. Simi Valley folks squirmed uncomfortably in their chairs as they watched their flickering black and white television sets. They stared in nervous [...]
EARTHLY SECRETS
Ahmanson foes want ground-water tests
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly – June 12, 2002
Elizabeth Crawford sits astride her black thoroughbred Rufus under a live oak on Ahmanson Ranch in eastern Ventura County, and gazes toward thousands of acres of golden hills. Seattle-based Washington Mutual‘s Ahmanson Land Company (ALC) wants to build 3,050 luxury manses on 2,783 acres [...]
REAL HOT PROPERTY
A popular Brentwood dog park on Veterans Administration property is build over an old radioactive waste dump that may soon be unearthed by proposed development.
by Michael Collins
EnviroReporter.com – May 18, 2006
SUVs and luxury sedans glide into the Barrington Dog Park parking lot just south of Sunset Boulevard in Brentwood. Industry types and soccer moms chatter [...]
WHERE THE BODIES ARE BURIED
Brentwood dump contains radioactive remains from decades of animal and human tests
By Michael Collins
EnviroReporter.com – May 25, 2006
During the 1950 and 60s, both UCLA and the Veteran’s Administration were deeply engaged in the Atomic Age, doing their part for the Cold War by performing radiation experiments on a wide variety of animal and human subjects. [...]
DIGGING UP THE DIRT
‘CityBeat’ expose on Brentwood nuke dump inspires calls for new investigations by local and federal officials
by Michael Collins
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 [...]
NUCLEAR REACTIONS
Veterans Administration begins testing for radioactive waste beneath popular dog park and surrounding areas including Brentwood School
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – December 7, 2006
In direct response to a five-year CityBeat and EnviroReporter.com investigation into a biomedical nuclear waste dump in Brentwood, the Veterans Administration has begun testing soil and groundwater on its West Los [...]
HIDE AND SEEK
Brentwood School study finds no radiation on campus land leased from the VA, but bigger questions remain unanswered
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat — February 22, 2007
In a January 30 letter to the parents of students at Brentwood School, headmaster Dr. Michael D. Pratt revealed that the exclusive private establishment had hired two firms in December [...]
NUKE ‘EM HIGH
Unearthing the VA dump’s dirty secrets raises more questions than answers
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat — August 16, 2007
On August 8, after months of wrangling, Congressman Henry Waxman finally released nearly 6,000 pages of Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) documents related to the Brentwood nuclear and chemical dump. The L.A. Democrat has had the documents [...]
VA Nuclear Dump Documents
December 17, 2009 – VA Statement on Barrington Park Environmental Study
After refusing to answer detailed questions about the soldiers’ tombstones in the biomedical nuclear and chemical dump, West LA VA director Donna Beiter claims grave markers treated appropriately. Bieter goes on to say that the $1 million testing in limited area of eastern arroyo in [...]
WHICH WAY THE WIND BLOWS
Runkle Canyon is poised to be Simi Valley’s newest neighborhood. But did the city misinterpret the risk of radioactive material in the ground?
By Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – March 17, 2005
Cattle graze on verdant hills as winter winds whip through the branches of centuries-old oaks on Runkle Canyon. Shrubby mulefat and willow scrub sway in [...]
SPIN CYCLE – LA CityBeat
Selling Runkle Canyon pollution report as clean
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat – August 23, 2007
The headlines out of Ventura County last week must have pleased Simi Valley officials intent on convincing its citizenry of the benign nature of Runkle Canyon’s soil and water. This is where homebuilding giants KB Home and Lennar are intent on [...]
VERY DIRTY LAUNDRY
A new report on L.A.’s nuked Rocketdyne site finally catches the attention of mainstream media
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat — October 12, 2006
A new five-year study of Boeing’s monstrously contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) sparked unprecedented mainstream print, radio, and television coverage last week. “Study Says Lab Meltdown Caused Cancer” blared an above-the-fold headline [...]
HOT ZONE
Rocketdyne’s Simi Valley Field Laboratory was on the frontlines of the Cold War. Now some who lived near “The Hill” say they share two distinctions: chronic illness and the unswerving belief that the lab caused it
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles magazine – June 1998
ON A HOT JULY NIGHT IN 1959, on flickering RCAs and Philcos and [...]
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 [...]
THE HILLS HAVE EYES
Simi Valley residents unite to fight ‘hot’ KB Home development in Runkle Canyon
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – September 21, 2006
“I am not a tree hugger, an environmental activist, or an Erin Brockovich wannabe,” said Patricia Coryell before an August 21 meeting of the Simi Valley City Council. Coryell and about two dozen other concerned [...]
NEIGHBORHOOD THREAT – Annotated
Runkle Canyon is poised to be Simi Valley’s newest neighborhood. But did the city misinterpret the risk of radioactive material in the ground?
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – March 10, 2005
Cattle graze on verdant hills as winter winds whip through the branches of centuries-old oaks on Runkle Canyon. Shrubby mulefat and willow scrub sway in [...]
AHMANSON RANCH TIMELINE
How investigative reporting stopped a public health disaster
By Dean Kuipers
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – December 31, 2003
June 13, 2002: Collins writes “Earthly Secrets” for LA Weekly, questioning what was in the water and soil of Ahmanson Ranch which is owned by Washington Mutual.
Late June 2002: Residents hold up copies of the Weekly piece at a Ventura [...]
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 [...]
DUST IN THE WIND
Simi Valley city and citizens are still looking for answers about Runkle Canyon radiation
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – March 15, 2007
Last fall, spurred on by citizens alarmed at the impending development of picturesque Runkle Canyon and the cloud of strontium-90-laden dust it could launch over the Simi and San Fernando valleys, the Simi Valley [...]
Brandeis-Bardin Institute Strontium-90 readings
As requested by Laura Behjan, assistant city manager for Simi Valley, EnviroReporter.com supplied the city an analysis of elevated Sr-90 readings in the Brandeis-Bardin Institute that were performed in 1995. According to the California Department of Health Services (CDHS), there was only one elevated Sr-90 reading detected at the institute that is between Runkle Canyon [...]
BUBBLE TROUBLE
City of Simi Valley forced to test Runkle Canyon water and soil for arsenic
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – July 26, 2007
No sooner had Simi Valley’s cadre of concerned citizens, the Radiation Rangers, discovered that arsenic and other heavy metals were fouling the water and soil of Runkle Canyon than the knives came out. The [...]
