Readers React: Santa Susana: A toxic site that is also home

It’s appalling to learn how the California Department of Toxic Substance Control has for years been under Boeing Co.’s corporate spell. (“Santa Susana toxic cleanup effort is a mess,” June 13)

I’m not sure what is the most disturbing — that people who live in the west San Fernando Valley, Simi Valley and the Conejo Valley often don’t know they are raising their families near the Santa Susana Field Lab (where there was a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959, and radioactive waste is still there), or that the government and responsible parties have never cleaned up the place, thanks in large part to Boeing’s lobbying machine.

I hope that Michael Hiltzik’s article will compel Gov. Jerry Brown to provide the public with leaders brave enough to stand up to Boeing. The public deserves agency leaders who aren’t so easily swayed by lobbyists.

Cindi Gortner

Westlake Village