Heart of the Brentwood dump – EnviroReporter.com

West LA Veterans Administration master plan protects old nuclear dump from development

The decades-long battle over the Brentwood biomedical nuclear and chemical dump may finally be over. Gone are any ideas of building a park with bike and walking paths over the dump EnviroReporter.com first exposed just over thirteen years ago.

Department of Veterans Affairs officials say their final master plan, due by the end of the month, will exclude the dump, adjacent arroyos and rare wetlands from any development. The West LA VA master plan is remarkable in that, for the first time, the VA comprehensively documents the dump’s location and condition with an eye to leaving it, the adjacent wetlands and 11 acres of land alone.

North (Upper) End of the Arroyo 1-Dept of Veterans Affairs
“After a long contentious battle, the decision to leave the contaminated nuclear and chemical Brentwood VA site undeveloped marks a major victory for public health and safety, says former Committee to Bridge the Gap (CBG) research director, Dr. Bennett Ramberg, who is now an international nuclear issues columnist.

CBG was first in raising questions about the mysterious nuclear dump on VA property back in the early 1980s. “However, prudence dictates that monitoring remain to assure no contamination migrates offsite or to ground water and remedial measures apply in the event detection takes place,” advises Ramberg.

The master plan also recognizes the heretofore ignored over $2 million worth of VA scientific assessments of the site in 2007 and 2010 precipitated by EnviroReporter.com‘s investigation of the waste disposal site.

Currently, the West LA VA is reviewing, and hopefully incorporating, the final comments on its Draft Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS). The candor of the master plan is striking as in the section entitled “WLA Landscape Survey Report.”

Locations of Hazardous Materials and Waste Operations on the WLA Campus – Dept of Veterans Affairs
“From the 1950s to approximately 1968, the WLA Campus used the arroyos as a repository for waste,” the survey states. “Studies in 2007 and 2010 concluded that there are no potential health risks to the public as a result of the waste deposits.”

That may well be true, if the dump is left undisturbed or removed with all the attendant rules and protocols regarding radioactive hazardous waste remediation of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The VA’s intention to forgo developing the dump was reaffirmed in a January 17 PEIS public meeting that included the West LA VA’s director Ann Brown and Glenn Elliott, VA environmental engineer and program manager who stressed that VA “will follow state and federal law.”

“Any activity within there will have to follow NRC, it will have to go through State regulatory requirements and that’s why it’s presented in there [PEIS],” Elliott said in response to an EnviroReporter.com question. “The information is in there about the arroyo.”

The PEIS landscape report describes a period from 1923 to 1952 when the arroyos’ significance “was aesthetic and part of the feeling of being within a peaceful respite in the burgeoning urbanization of West Los Angeles.”

VA’s Ann Brown and Glenn Elliott at January 17, 2019 PEIS public meeting at the West LA VA
“The introduction of dumping waste negates the aesthetic value of the arroyos and indicates that VA did not value the space as a significant feature of the campus,” the report admits with stunning honesty. “Although the waste is not visible, the change in integrity of feeling and association from the deposition mars the ability of the arroyos to contribute to the WLA VA NRHD [National Register Historic District].”

The report recommends removing the arroyos from the historic district and to continue to use the undeveloped 11-acre land as a buffer to tony Brentwood, one of the richest neighborhoods in Los Angeles. “It would be more fitting to note the setback of the hospital buildings from the adjacent neighborhood as a feature of the NRHD,” the study says.

The “WLA Wetland Survey Report” further confirms that the dump will lay undisturbed for the foreseeable future, at least the 30 years the master plan intends to be in effect. “As part of the PEIS/PEIR, no development is being proposed for the arroyo area, and no permits or reviews are being requested from Federal or State agencies for the area,” the wetlands study says. “Past environmental studies documented that the arroyo has been used for disposal of waste from VA facilities and other sources. The identified buried waste sites were covered with clean fill to depths of 5 to 30 feet (or more) as protective measures during the storm drain construction and other project activities. One buried waste site appears to be within the northern portion of the wetland area.”

Chloroform gas – lower Brentwood School athletic field
The master plan, as in the past, has characterized the dump as not having any elevated contaminant levels, mistakes corrected in PEIS public comments by this reporter with 2019 EnviroReporter.com Comments on West LA VA Master Plan Environmental Impact Statement. “While it is correct that “contaminants and radionuclides found in the soil and water did not exceed preliminary remediation goals established for soil and tap water by EPA Region 9,” that does not hold true for gases,” this reporter wrote in February 14, 2019 comments. “Two passive gas samples for benzene and 17 passive gas samples for chloroform greatly exceed their PRGs. Benzene gas was 83.3 times and 91.7 times its PRG. Chloroform gas was between 208.3 times and 700.0 times its PRG throughout the range of the 17 samples taken.”

Those elevated gases were found in areas currently leased by exclusive Brentwood School and used as a soccer and baseball field. The PEIR also mischaracterized the extent of the dump area’s groundwater radioactivity which was noted in EnviroReporter.com‘s comments as well.

“The 2010 study report showed that Radium-226 (Ra-226) and Radium-228 (Ra-228) in dump groundwater exceeded California’s Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for drinking water by 60.6 percent,” this reporter’s comments read. ”The VA was required to notify state water authorities of the MCL violation as the VA’s groundwater has beneficial users and is protected at the source. That did not happen which is not that big a deal in this circumstance. But it should be noted in this section of the PEIS that Ra-226 and Ra-228 are in the groundwater.”

Southern (Lower) End of the Arroyo 1 – Dept of Veterans Affairs
In comments and at the January 17 PEIS meeting, concern was raised by this reporter over repeated use in the PEIS of detailed, richly-illustrated maps showing pedestrian and bike pathways as well as a roadway right over and through the known dump. The VA’s Elliott explained the discrepancy for the audience and media present.

“So the bike path that was being mentioned here, that was part of the original master plan that was previously developed,” Elliott said. “Currently, that is not being looked at.”

After the meeting director Brown chatted with audience members and this reporter was struck by how different she is from her predecessor Ralph Tillman who is now doing a stretch in federal prison for taking bribes at the VA while defrauding it out of over $13 million. This was while Tillman simultaneously dismissed any notion that the dump could be a hazard even as part of it lay under Barrington Park which includes an off-leash dog run.

“From our perspective, there’s nothing to get out,” Tillman told Hena Cuevas of KCET‘s “Life & Times” in a 2007 segment called Brentwood’s Forgotten VA Dump. “In other words, it’s a safe environment. The land is safe, the surface is safe.”

Southern (Lower) End of the Arroyo 2 – Dept of Veterans Affairs
Tillman continued to gripe about EnviroReporter.com‘s findings at a marathon private and public meeting in 2007 at the VA’s Wadsworth Theater. “We’re going to waste a million dollars for no purpose,” a Tillman said to a Los Angeles City Council staffer in four-hour discussions before the September 6, 2007 CARES public meeting. CARES was a then-President George W. Bush plan to partially privatize the VA, with its West LA VA redevelopment worth $4 billion.

That was before the Bush Administration’s VA ran into the buzz saw of information on EnviroReporter.com on the Brentwood dump that upended the whole plan. During the 2007 CARES meeting, Bush-VA Secretary Nicholson’s Special Assistant Jay Halpern said the nuke dump delayed Bush Administration plans for development. “There were other issues that we ran into that were much more complicated,” said Halpern. “Certainly the issue around the radiation of Barrington Park.”

EnviroReporter.com began on May 18, 2006, when this reporter and his future bride, Denise Duffield, built the site to back up the explosive VA nuke dump exposé for the simple reason that we didn’t think anyone would believe that there was a substantial biomedical nuclear and chemical dump in Brentwood, California if we didn’t kick with it and show reams of supporting documents and photos.

“Real Hot Property” – LA CityBeat, May 18, 2006
The website’s debut coordinated with the late, great Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat newspaper that published simultaneously “Real Hot Property” on CityBeat as we premiered with an expanded version on EnviroReporter.com. One week later, the newspaper and new website followed up with versions of “Where the Bodies are Buried.”

Duffield and this reporter were subsequently rewarded with several awards for this journalism including Online Journalists of the Year from the Greater Los Angeles Press Club. The greatest reward for this journalist, however, was even meeting Duffield with whom I had my first date exactly 15 years ago today on May 20, 2004. We married in 2008, wed in 2010 and have shared many adventures ever since.

“While plaudits may be due the Trump administration for signing off on resolution of the VA dump, the major credit for success goes to the relentless efforts of Committee to Bridge the Gap and the EnviroReporter.com/CityBeat for keeping the issue alive year after year pressing career government employees to do the evaluations that recommended keeping the site undisturbed,” adds Ramberg.

That credit goes to Brown, Elliott and a host of government servants who appear to have finally stopped any foolish development plans for the dump. The final master plan will most likely confirm this wise choice soon enough if Elliott’s parting words are any measure. “Leave it alone.”

Northern Arroyo – Dept of Veterans Affairs

READ 2019 EnviroReporter.com Comments on West LA VA Master Plan Environmental Impact Statement

11 Comments

  1. Veterans and their supporters were overjoyed August 29 when U.S. District Judge David O. Carter ruled that the West Los Angeles VA had to boot Brentwood School, UCLA baseball and a myriad of concerns using the VA for purposes not primarily aimed at helping Veterans. VA did not like that and, if the past is any teacher, will move glacially to enforce the law. VA did tell Judge Carter that the biomedical nuclear dump we exposed in 2006 was essentially harmless, which, of course, is bupkis. This was in response to the unanticipated VA/LA County screwup where the dump, referred to as a landfill, had inadvertently made it impossible for hundreds of homeless Veterans to move into 95%-completed new buildings next to the dump.

    “As of this order, this issue has not been resolved and veterans do not know when they will be able to move into the units in Building 401, or the soon-to-be available units in Building 402,” Judge Carter wrote in his ruling. “The VA is understandably frustrated by these roadblocks. The landfill issue highlights the importance of having the maximum amount of land possible available to veterans for housing.”

    The West LA VA trial highlighted the fact of VA’s inability to free itself from the continuing conundrum that is the Brentwood dump. Our free advise would be to dig out the dump which EnviroReporter.com has so clearly mapped out on our online news website. It would be a relatively easy dig as the maps show. And immediately and aggressively begin construction of structures that won’t fall under the questionable aegis of Los Angeles County: mobile homes and modern structures rolled out on Brentwood School’s football and baseball fields while the school’s athletic facilities are quickly converted into a hostel-type homeless shelter in its august buildings which are now illegally trespassing on federal property exclusively for the use of America’s Veterans.

    Tons of rubble in West LA VA's arroyo bordering biomedical nuclear dump

  2. We received this message yesterday from the folks at VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and are more than pleased to share it with you:

    Good afternoon,

    The VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System (VAGLAHS) is announcing the issuance of the Record of Decision (ROD) associated with the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for the VA West Los Angeles (WLA) Medical Center Campus Proposed Master Plan for Improvements and Reconfiguration. The Final PEIS was released in June 2019 and identified, analyzed, and documented the potential environmental, cultural, socioeconomic, and cumulative impacts of the proposed improvements and alternatives for redevelopment as set forth in the WLA Draft Master Plan and identified VA’s preferred alternative (Alternative D). The ROD, issued after at least 30 days from publication of the Final PEIS, approves the implementation of Alternative D for the proposed improvements and reconfiguration of the WLA Medical Center Campus.

    This decision adopts all of the measures identified in the Final EIS to avoid or minimize potential adverse effects from the preferred alternative. In addition, this ROD also incorporates the Programmatic Agreement (PA) executed on May 1, 2019, with the California State Historic Preservation Officer, the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation, and other consulting parties to address potential adverse impacts on cultural resources, in compliance with Section 106 of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA).

    The ROD and the Final PEIS are available at http://www.losangeles.va.gov/masterplan/.

    Very respectfully,

    VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System

    +++

    When EnviroReporter.com debuted in 2006 with our West LA VA dump cover story Real Hot Property, in concert with a cover story of the same name in then-alternative news weekly Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat, it had come after a VA dump investigation begun in 2001. Now, 19 years later, this Record of Decision codifies the WLA Draft Master Plan which incorporates most of EnviroReporter.com‘s comprehensive comments on the dump and the need to clearly exempt it from any development until the time comes to safely remove the dump’s waste under strict state and federal guidelines.

    This tremendous environmental victory, which in its course saw EnviroReporter.com beat back a $4 billion plan to privatize much of the West LA VA, was accomplished primarily through alternative news media coverage (including LA Weekly) and the creation of EnviroReporter.com with its continued coverage for the last 13 years. Of course, the people at West LA VA that made this happen are to be heartily thanked for safeguarding the health and well-being of the Veterans who would have been impacted by the dump’s development as would have the Brentwood community.

    Curiously, in the final months leading up to this momentous day, efforts to exploit EnviroReporter.com‘s investigation to find new fault with the West LA VA have emerged. One attempts to weakly claim that a theater company was evicted from the VA perhaps because the land it operated on was impacted by the dump. It wasn’t – nothing was buried there from our investigation’s findings which included a close look at this part of the West LA VA. Another somewhat unhinged non-Veteran is vigorously hounding EnviroReporter.com to expose illegal leases at the VA, something we first did 13 years ago, and has harassed VA officials and media with oft-times incoherent ramblings demanding action. No matter. My former editor at LA Weekly, Gale Holland, and the Los Angeles Times have done an excellent job of covering this important issue.

    The importance of this victory at the VA cannot be overstated. It shows that persistent long-term investigative journalism and eventual good governance can end up working hand in hand to form a more perfect result.

  3. Victory at the VA for everyone especially America’s Veterans is finalized. DONE.

    The West LA VA Draft Master Plan Team kindly sent us notice of the Final Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (Final PEIS) for the property and save for some small scientific details, it valiantly fulfills the promise of the Master Plan as reported here. Gone are the maps detailing development of the dump in various ways. Highlighted clearly are the commitments to leaving the dump alone for about next three decades unless it is properly removed and remediated according to exacting federal and state environmental regulations. This protects Veterans, VA workers, the public and Brentwood’s environment.

    The Department of Veterans Affairs and its Draft Master Plan Team are deserving of EnviroReporter.com‘s congratulations and thanks. Thank you.

    And thank you to the people who helped EnviroReporter.com over the course of this investigation which began in 2001 and was first published May 18, 2006 with Real Hot Property in Los Angeles CityBeat and in EnviroReporter.com, our online news organization’s website inaugural cover story.

    2006 Los Angeles CityBeat cover story Real Hot Property

  4. Hi Michael:

    I nearly forgot to followup and correct myself about my concern the BWS site may have been underrepresented in your latest report. Shorlty after that post I read through (as opposed to glanced) over your latest coverage and noticed, as you said; accurate representation of waste under the BWS “lease” area. Sorry for any inconvenience and thank you again for your exceptional work.

  5. @Ryan Thompson: Perhaps you missed the entire section on Brentwood School’s leased area where benzene and chloroform gases emanating from the ground is discussed. As linked to in this piece, our “2019 EnviroReporter.com Comments on West LA VA Master Plan Environmental Impact Statement” also explores this “toxic waster.” Also, do let us know when your (linked) VA timeline is completed with full coverage of the issues you have outlined so far, such as the environmental ones we have reported on for the last 13 years.

  6. Always appreciate your brave investigative journalism but must admit it’s peculiar this is the first on topic to avoid coverage of the toxic waster under Brentwood School’s illicit 22-acre “lease” at WLA VA. Your prior work uncovered some of the most critical evidence on this in suppliment to several independent and significant studies confirming such. Did I miss something?

  7. @Julie Bien, Xochitl Jiménez & K Hill,

    Thank you for the kind words especially coming from you three though I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting Xochitl. I do know the superb scribe and CSUN journalism professor Julie whose late mother Joan Bien brought me in to partner on 50 YEARS AFTER AMERICA’S WORST NUCLEAR MELTDOWN ten years ago. “K” is Kraig and this effervescent environmental activist and musician from Malibu has been a longtime pal going back to our Samohi days! These are the ties that bind.

    This is far from over, however, and we don’t want to generate premature good tidings that could be interpreted as ‘fake news’ considering how unlikely it may seem that Trump’s VA actually did something good for Vets and the public alike. We are this taking VA at its word as we report here, knowing that its backsliding on the dump issue would not be good. It will take the VA producing its Final Environmental Impact Statement with the needed corrections we advised in comments to make sure this is the real deal. Then VA will deserve even more credit.

  8. Michael – Great work in bringing this to the public eye and keeping it there. Good on ya! – K

  9. Xochitl Jiménez

    Thirteen years of effort — and victory! This is outstanding news!! You kept a lot of people from getting poisoned, and you deserve our thanks, so THANK YOU!!!

  10. Congrats! And thank you to you both for all the hard work!

  11. Congratulations Michael Collins, and to everyone who helped raise awareness on the hazards present at the West L.A. VA! Great job, and thanks are due for the years of effort you invested in this series of articles. Sometimes the good guys win, and future visitors to this area will be protected by limiting development and access to these areas. Thank you once again, it really matters that you have steadfastly worked to expose environmental hazards at the West L.A. VA, as well as many other locations around the world.

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