Search Results for 'rocketdyne'
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 [...]
AHMANSON RANCH ENDGAME
‘CityBeat’ contributor Michael Collins wins a 2003 Los Angeles Press Club award for coverage of toxics issues that lead to a new state park at Ahmanson Ranch.
By Dean Kuipers
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – December 31, 2003
A little over 18 months ago, freelance journalist Michael Collins published a story in the LA Weekly about toxics at the [...]
Simi, We Have a Problem
Historic meeting of the Department of Toxic Substances Control and citizens of the Simi and San Fernando valleys takes place January 28, 2009 in Simi Valley City Council Chambers. Committee to Bridge the Gap president, Dan Hirsch, rips Response Plan as “propoganda” and says 2004 Environmental Impact Report for Runkle Canyon, approved by City Council, was “fraudulent.”
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 [...]
Interview with Ventura County Supervisor Candidate Jim Dantona
October 25, 2006
“My position on Runkle Canyon is everything comes to a complete halt, period, until we know exactly through the studies what type of contaminants are in Runkle Canyon, or what type of dangers we have there and then making sure that that’s cleaned up before there’s anything that would take place there.
“However, I [...]
REINING IN RUNKLE
Read the Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat “Street” article on the Simi Valley City Council temporarily halting KB Homes grading plans for Runkle Canyon, and asking the U.S. EPA, California Department of Health Services, and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control to evaluate our revelations that the development area has tested high for radiation and didn’t [...]
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 [...]
UNRAVELING RUNKLE
by Michael Collins
Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat – September 28, 2006
Dozens of exasperated residents converged on Simi Valley City Hall Monday night, spurred on by last week’s report in this paper (“The Hills Have Eyes”), and worried the development of 461 homes in Runkle Canyon was being pushed through without a promised city council review. That story [...]
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 [...]
Entire Pat-Chem Laboratories report
Recent articles in the Ventura County Star and the Simi Valley Acorn, and comments by City of Simi Valley officials, have misrepresented the pollution problems in Runkle Canyon and our role in reporting them. In order to correct the record, and to continue to provide the citizens of the Simi and San Fernando valleys the [...]
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 [...]
Simi Valley City Council Excerpts – August 20, 2007
The following two excerpts are noted in “Spin Cycle – Simi Council sells disturbing Runkle Canyon pollution report as clean” in the August 23, 2007 issue of Los Angeles CityBeat. The statements of Assistant City Manager Laura Behjan, reporting for staff, seem to indicate a disconnect between the city’s understanding of the nature of Runkle Canyon water versus [...]
Santa Susana Field Laboratory (Rocketdyne) Workgroup Meeting – October 18, 2007
The Workgroup meeting is held quarterly at the Simi Valley Cultural Center. The discussion topics were the status of State Senate Bill 990 sponsored by Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D-Los Angeles) and signed into law by Governor Schwarzenneger October 12. “Pay Dirt” explored this issue.
This meeting, partially covered in “Dirty Business,” was notable for the exchanges [...]
Simi Valley City Council Excerpts – October 22, 2007
The Ventura County Reporter cover story “Dirty Business – New law cleaning up Rocketdyne for parkland may not stop adjacent KB Home development pushed by Simi Valley City Council” included quotes culled from these selected excerpts.
The speakers, who were limited to three minutes apiece in public comment, included “Toxic Terry” Matheney and “The Good Reverend John” [...]
DIRTY BUSINESS
New law cleaning up Rocketdyne for parkland may not stop adjacent KB Home development pushed by Simi Valley City Council
By Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – November 1, 2007
The apocalyptic Ranch Fire marching toward Simi Valley Oct. 22 never made it to the city limits, but smoky wind gusts up to 70 mph heralded the firestorm [...]
DOWN THE TEST TUBES
KB Home’s Runkle Canyon radiation tests questioned as more groundwater pollution is found and developer negotiates cleanup agreement with state
By Michael Collins
Ventura County Reporter – January 17, 2008
As soon as the Rev. John Southwick heard the latest round of Runkle Canyon soil testing for the leukemia-causing radionuclide strontium-90 (Sr-90) came back low, he started to question [...]
