Search Results for 'rocketdyne'
Rocketdyne Gallery 1
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Aerojet Chino Hills Clean Up
What a difference a $46 million cleanup makes! The above panorama would be covered in upscale homes without our investigation that uncovered unexploded munitions, depleted uranium and toxic fuel oxidizer perchlorate problems at this former military industrial plant. The Aerojet Chino Hills facility is 29 miles (45 km) east-southeast of downtown Los Angeles and has [...]
Ahmanson Ranch Celebration
On May 15, 2004, a celebration of the creation of the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve, commonly known as Ahmanson Ranch, took place at the Hidden Valley homestead of Dr. Richard Grossman, a famed plastic and reconstruction surgeon, and one of the movers and shakers in the battle of Ahmanson Ranch. The party [...]
Ahmanson Ranch Dedication
On October 3, 2003, Governor Gray Davis announced the saving of Ahmanson Ranch. This is a day that will forever live in the hearts of those who fought so hard to save the land. I wasn’t one of those save open space folks. Indeed, the reporting we did had to do with toxic contamination emanating [...]
Mountains of Goo
Simi Valley’s Radiation Rangers uncover more than just contamination in Runkle Canyon – they’ve discovered that Runkle’s would-be developer KB Home promise to remove two giant mountains of slag material that are leaking pools of toxic sludge.
Los Angeles Press Club 47th Annual Gala
Michael Collins garnered Second Place for Journalist of the Year for newspapers under 100,000 circulation with his investigative series “Two Mile Island” in Los Angeles CityBeat.
The Series:
TWO MILE ISLAND
BLINDED BY THE LIGHT
BETWEEN ROCKETDYNE AND A HARD PLACE
RADIATING OUTWARD
TOXIC ODDS
Annual Southern California Journalism Awards gala program column by Los Angeles Press Club Judging Chair Michael Collins:
Los Angeles Press Club 45th Annual Gala
Michael Collins won First Place for 2002′s best Investigative/Series for papers under 100,000 circulation for his “Rocketdyne Ranch” expose in the Ventura County Reporter.
Judges’ comments: A thorough and well-written report, which even included the reporter using his own nuclear radiation monitor to find radiation that had been overlooked in previous inspections.
The Winning Series:
ROCKETDYNE RANCH – [...]
Awards
L.A. Press Club Board Member/Judge Michael Collins wins First Place for in the Investigative/Series for Daily/Weekly Newspapers Under 100,000 Circulation for his “Rocketdyne Ranch” expose of Ahmanson Ranch.
L.A. Press Club Board Member/Judging Chair Michael Collins wins Second Place for Journalist of the Year for Daily/Weekly Newspapers Under 100,000 Circulation. Collins writes “Judging, So That We [...]
Ten Years After – Two Years On – Letters
Congratulations Michael and Denise on two very impressive years at Enviroreporter. My involvement with you and Denise, as both a “Radiation Ranger” and a friend, has been very rewarding for me. A special thanks to you both for keeping this old brain working on all the scientific reporting you share with me. I am [...]
Ten Years After – Two Years On
Denise Anne Duffield and I launched EnviroReporter.com in May 2006. In conjunction with Los Angeles CityBeat, we broke a five-year investigation called “Real Hot Property” about a forgotten nuclear dump on Veterans Administration land in Brentwood California.
A story that hot deserved an even hotter website so we loaded up EnviroReporter.com with award-winning investigative journalism, in-depth [...]
Corporate Point Documents & Links
Newest to oldest, generally, in descending order:
August 7, 2009
Los Angeles City Council votes 12-0 to ratify Corporate Pointe at West Hills ordnance and resolution green-lighting developer Trammell Crow’s development without having an Environmental Impact Report done. Site rezoned which allows higher limits for radiological, chemical and heavy metals. EnviroReporter.com‘s “Eating Trammell Crow?” and “Your journalistic [...]
‘SIMI WE HAVE A PROBLEM’
Runkle Canyon radiation report spells trouble
by Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – February 19, 2009
Nearly 50 people filled Simi Valley City Hall chambers late last month in a much-anticipated Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) meeting about environmental conditions in Runkle Canyon. The 1,595-acre property is where KB Home hopes to build 461 homes. The [...]
San Fernando Valley’s Galaxy of Goo
LA Department of City Planning rezones former aerospace and nuclear research site in west San Fernando Valley site to chagrin of residents. A February 26 vote codifies lower environmental standards for chemicals, radionuclides and heavy metals found at 81-acre property. Plan determines that no Environmental Impact Report is needed.
SPOONGLOW
It’s all about savings in the multi-billion-dollar recycled radiation business
By Michael Collins
Pasadena Weekly – December 27, 2001
My neighbor stared intensely at her silverware, eyes bulging. Then she glowered at me. “You mean that this could be radioactive?”
Whipping out my Geiger-Counter, this lady’s utensils registered “hot,” meaning that her eating implements had more than a [...]
PERCHLORATE’S PREGNANT PAUSE
Polluters are attempting to abort the state’s new standards
By Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – January 5, 2004
Ammonium perchlorate was first used at the NASA-owned Jet Propulsion Laboratory, literally as rocket fuel. A rocket booster for the Space Shuttle contains over 1.3 million pounds of propellant, of which 70 percent is ammonium perchlorate. Potassium perchlorate is [...]
DUMB AND DUMBER
Protecting kids from perchlorate isn’t rocket science
By Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – January 20, 2005
On Jan. 10, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a report on the hazards of perchlorate that has the defense and aerospace industry crowing and some environmentalists singing the blues.
The NAS report recommends national drinking water standards that would be [...]
SMOKE ON THE WATER
Proposition 84 promises much-needed water cleanup in the San Fernando Valley, but is still struggling to get traction
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat — November 2, 2006
When they go to the polls November 7, Angelenos will be paying special attention to Proposition 84, the biggest water bond ever floated in the state. Besides shoring up the [...]
FISHBACK MOUNTAIN
One man calls his project on the L.A./Ventura border the pursuit of a dream home, but others just see an illegal solid waste dump.
By Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – November 23, 2006
Chatsworth resident Todd Doherty began noticing a heavy flow of dump truck traffic heading up and down Woolsey Canyon in November 2004. The 10, [...]
ROCKETDYNE’S RED GLARE
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly – December 9, 1998
Pulling up to Simi Valley City Hall the morning of October 21, EPA staffer Vicky Semones was counting on a quiet, efficient work meeting. Her job was to coordinate the scientists, public officials and community representatives monitoring the cleanup from decades of nuclear and chemical experimentation at the [...]
TOTAL RECALL
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly – December 9,1998
“Start talking to the former employees — those who are left alive — that have not contracted cancer,” former Rocketdyne technician Dan Parks implored at the June 24 meeting of the Santa Susana Field Interagency Work Group. A lifelong resident of Simi Valley, Parks worked for Rocketdyne’s Radiation [...]
MELTDOWN MONEY
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly – December 23, 1998
Imagine giving someone millions of dollars for doing a bad job. That’s what Secretary of Energy Bill Richardson did on December 15 when he awarded aerospace giant Boeing $148.5 million to complete cleanup efforts at its Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory by 2006.
Among the more creative reasons Department [...]
SUITED UP
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly – January 20, 1999
Accused industrial polluter Rocketdyne has ducked several legal bullets, but its problems aren’t over yet.
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last month green-lighted a federal class-action lawsuit against the corporation’s parent company, Boeing.
The suit charges Rocketdyne with leaks and releases of radioactive [...]
UCLA STUDY BURNS ROCKETDYNE
Cancer rates elevated among space-lab workers
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly – April 21, 1999
The other gooey shoe dropped last week in Simi Valley. UCLA’s School of Public Health released its long-term study of Rocketdyne employees exposed to a soup of toxic chemicals while working on the company’s giant rocket test-stands.
The results were grim: Increased rates of [...]
ROCKET MAN
William Webber’s memory of fire
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly – April 21, 1999
In conducting two detailed long-term health surveys of Rocketdyne employees, UCLA scientists have necessarily focused on the results of working for a firm that helped pioneer the space race.
William Webber offers a glimpse of how it all happened.
A rocket scientist who spent a total [...]
STATE STAINED IN ROCKETDYNE SCANDAL
Watchdog agency under fire for colluding with space firm
By Michael Collins
LA Weekly – May 5, 1999
The controversy over potential toxic contamination of workers and the community surrounding Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Simi Valley is now threatening to engulf a state agency charged with monitoring inquiries into the aerospace giant.
Assembly Members Sheila Kuehl (D– [...]
