Exclusive 2019 Update: VICTORY AT THE VA – West LA Veterans Administration master plan protects old nuclear dump from development

Trash cans full of needles


This document is remarkable, in part, because of the radical change in which MicroTech characterizes the nuke dump as it pertains to Brentwood School from one week to the next, and then reversing itself again two months later (as seen in Document 30). Document 13 shows the behind-the-scenes VA/MicroTech e-mails that provide some insight into these report reversals.

As we’ve noted in “Nuke ‘Em High,” the “knowledge of the leased site’s history seemed clear on May 24, 2005, when Vienna, Virginia-based contractor MicroTech,LLC submitted to the VA its Environmental Baseline Report and Analysis for the property, which included this time bomb: “The biomedical, radioactive medical waste and [asbestos- containing material] containing construction debris waste sites are all now buried under 15´ to 30´ of fill material areas leased to the Brentwood School for use as athletic fields,” the document stated. “The fact that this area has already been developed for use as athletic fields indicates that: 1. Either the public was not informed as to the contaminates [sic] under the athletic fields, or 2. These environmental hazards did not trigger a significant negative public reaction from nearby residents (including parents of students using the fields).”

Following is the cover letter and the pertinent passages quoted above:

282-405x600

Recommendation 2, below, advises “that further research be done to determine the source of the diesel contaminated soil used for fill under the Brentwood School Athletic Fields.” Recommendation 1 advocates a “Health Risk Assessment” for the “radiological wastes, medical wastes, and construction demolition debris is known to be buried to quantify the potential health risks for use of these areas.”

However, a week later on May 30, MicroTech changed its tune and submitted a revised report that said, “The radioactive medical waste site is not at the Brentwood School athletic fields. The Brentwood school site was never a burial site for low-level radioactive medical waste.”

The revised report also discounted its earlier statements about Brentwood School fill soil being contaminated with diesel.

In a double-reversal, MicroTech reverted to the original findings of rad-waste under Brentwood School in a July 18, 2005, report that eventually made its into the September 2005 draft PricewaterhouseCoopers report that Secretary Nicholson was so adamant in discounting to Congressman Waxman.

The below conclusions have been edited to remove references to the residents and parents either not knowing or knowing and not caring, about the dump.

Exclusive 2019 Update: VICTORY AT THE VA – West LA Veterans Administration master plan protects old nuclear dump from development