Environmental Cleanup at Rocketdyne

Re “Trust Isn’t the Only Issue; History Counts Too,” Ventura County Perspective, Aug. 6.

I am a neighbor of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and someone who has worked at the site for 37 years. I know a great deal about those operations and the environmental cleanup. Monitoring and cleanup at the facility began long before the antinuclear activists started what writer Beverly Kelley calls their “good fight.” Her column actually read like it was ripped right from the pages of the activists’ field manual for that fight.

Santa Susana operations have been monitored, audited, investigated, surveyed and verified by numerous regulatory agencies continuously for decades. Indeed, radiological monitoring goes back to the 1950s, when I began my 20 years there in nuclear operations.

The 1959 partial meltdown that she claims went undisclosed for more than two decades was actually reported to local news media that summer. Monitoring showed that no harmful releases took place as a result of the accident.

She also mentions the surplus trailers that went to various organizations. She failed to mention that the buildings were not part of nuclear operations and that subsequent independent testing showed--as expected--that their was no radiological contamination of the buildings.

During those early Cold War years, environmental standards were not what they are today and, yes, safety practices during that era might not have met today’s more stringent guidelines. But the extensive monitoring and cleanup activities over the past two decades offer reassurance that operations did not pose a health threat to the surrounding community.

Rocketdyne is a good, open, honest neighbor meeting the highest standards of safety and environmental protection. I only hope that Ms. Kelley will strive for a higher standard of journalism.

JAMES F. LANG

Simi Valley

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Thanks so much to Beverly Kelley for really telling it like it is. This article reflects so well what we have been trying to put forth for so long.

This article is a great inspiration and comes at a critical time. I just hope that it gets widely read. Thank you for showing such an informed understanding of the problems and the futility of true solutions.

BARBARA JOHNSON

Simi Valley