CBG's Presentation to EPA on Efforts to Weaken Radiation Standards
Bridge the Gap's presentation to the EPA Deputy Administrator and other senior EPA officials on efforts to weaken radiation standards and failures in EPA's radiation monitoring system in the U.S. during Fukushima. Meeting included NRDC, Sierra Club, Friends of the Earth, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and Bridge the Gap, among others.
Simi Valley Moms Work to
Cleanup Radioactive Neighborhood
Historic Cleanup Agreement Reached for
Former Nuclear Facility in Southern California
State and federal governments signed agreements today to clean up toxic contamination at SSFL, a former nuclear reactor and rocket testing facility in the hills overlooking the western San Fernando and Simi Valleys. The cleanup agreements
were lauded by CBG and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). CBG, NRDC, and nearby communities worked together for decades to ensure a thorough cleanup.
CBG, NIRS, Sierra Club Critique "Non-Protective" NRC Radiation Standards
February 10, 2011 -- NRC radiation standards allow workers to be exposed to radiation at levels that will cause cancer in a quarter of those exposed, according to the federal government's own official estimates, CBG and two other organizations disclosed in a February 10 report. Furthermore, NRC radiation limits for the public allow cancer risks one hundred times higher than permitted for any other carcinogen, the report indicates.
February 11, 2011 -- A recent report from the California Council on Science and Technology, requested by state legislators to assess potential risks from RF radiation from "SmartMeters" (new electric meters being installed on homes to broadcast energy usage), largely just cut and pasted claims from a recent brochure from the electric power industry, a CBG review discloses. Furthermore, because of two errors, the report appears to underestimate relative RF cumulative whole body exposures by a factor of approximately ten thousand, the CBG analysis indicates.
An unprecedented 1700+ comments were received on the Agreements-in-Principle for the cleanup of the Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA portions of the Santa Susana Field Lab, the contaminated nuclear and rocket testing facility, with supporters outnumbering those with questions and criticisms by 100 to 1. In a move that has created some frustration in the community, however, DOE has requested a second comment period, this time on the detailed legalese in the Administrative Order on Consent that puts the Agreement-in-Principle into a legally binding and enforceable form. The community has so long yearned for the cleanup to commence that the delay in signing a final agreement and requiring people to go through a comment period again has caused some irritation. But DOE and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) have committed to signing a final, legally binding agreement by December 6, after the close of the second comment period. So, PLEASE get your comments in, by November 22, urging that the final agreement be promptly signed (see Urgent Action).
CBG Mourns Death of Long-time Board Member Mildred Plotkin
Millie Plotkin, who served on Bridge the Gap's Board and was one of our mainstays for more than three decades, died peacefully in her sleep on October 16. She was a remarkable person, feisty and progressive, a perfect match for her husband Shel, to whom our hearts and thoughts go out.
ELECTED OFFICIALS PRESSURE BOEING
TO CLEAN UP SSFL
After the historic announcement that NASA and DOE have agreed to clean up portions of SSFL, the Boeing Company is coming under intense pressure by public officials to agree to clean up the facility to the same stringent cleanup standards that both federal agencies have agreed to abide by.
Click here to view the letter presented to Boeing by elected officials.
Congressman Brad Sherman hands a letter signed by elected officials, and addressed to the head of Boeing, to a security guard at SSFL. The letter calls on Boeing to stop obstructing the cleanup and to join with DOE and NASA in agreeing to the same cleanup deal the federal government has agreed to.
SSFL NUCLEAR CLEANUP DEAL REACHED
After 30 years of debate, a federal lawsuit, the passage of a state law, and congressional inquiries, a breakthrough agreement has been reached to cleanup portions of the SSFL facility to heightened EPA standards. On being asked by reporters to comment on the deal struck between regulators, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and NASA, CBG's Dan Hirsch called the agreement "extraordinary." Hirsch went on to say that "It’s the biggest news since the meltdown. It’s the culmination of decades of work to get the contamination cleaned up."
The agreement with DOE will lead to the cleanup of Area 4, where the 1959 meltdown occurred. The agreement with NASA will lead to the cleanup of Area 2 and part of Area 1, where the space agency conducted a great deal of rocket testing in the 20th century.
Read more in the Ventura County Star: here
Read more in the Los Angeles Times: here Read more in the Contra Costa Times: here Read more in the Los Angeles Daily News: here The DTSC press release can be read here
The DOE agreement can be read here
The NASA agreement can be read here
CBG Files Amicus Brief In Nuclear Cleanup Case
Boeing Had Sued California to Block Cleanup Law for Meltdown Site
Bridge the Gap, the S. Calif. Federation of Scientists, Physicians for Social Responsibility-LA, and the Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition, represented by Loyola Law School Environmental Law Professor Dan Selmi, filed an amicus brief supporting California's position in a lawsuit brought by Boeing to block SB990, the state law governing cleanup of the contaminated Santa Susana Field Lab. Click here to read the brief, here for the exhibits, and here for the motion to be admitted as an amicus. Read the state's brief here.
Click here for the State of California's opposition to Boeing's Motion for Summary Judgment
Bake Sale For Boeing!
February, 2010: Teens Against Toxins, a group of high school students alarmed by the Boeing Company’s refusal to clean up the radioactive and toxic contamination at its Santa Susana Field Lab near where they live, recently held a bake-sale to raise money to be donated to the Boeing Company, which claims a state-ordered cleanup would be a financial burden. The bake sale featured Chocolate Meltdowns and other nuclear-themed treats. The purpose was to raise funds for Boeing, which is suing to avoid complying with a state-ordered cleanup of toxic waste resulting from a 1959 nuclear meltdown at the Santa Susana Field Lab above the San Fernando, Simi and Conejo Valleys. The Boeing Company, which made more than $68.0 billion in 2009, is claiming it would be a financial hardship to have to follow the California law on cleaning up the contamination. Boeing refused to accept the $99.31 raised by the teens, so they donated it to cancer research. Click here to see their YouTube video.
50th Anniversary of LA's Partial Nuclear Meltdown
In July 1959, a reactor in the Los Angeles area suffered a partial meltdown. The Atomic Energy Commission kept the accident secret for decades, until Bridge the Gap was able to bring it to public attention. Fifty years after the extraordinary accident, radioactive and chemical contamination at the site still hasn't been cleaned up. For more information, including access to rare footage and photos of the meltdown, click here.
CBG Leads Effort to Get Obama EPA to
Block Pending Proposals to Relax Radiation Protections
A whole range of proposals left over from the Bush Administration to markedly relax standards for radiation protection remain pending before the new leadership at EPA. In August, CBG led an effort by numerous groups to get the new leadership at EPA to reverse these proposals; see our letter and supporting materials here.
In November, CBG's Dan Hirsch led a delegation to an extraordinary meeting with three Assistant Administrators at EPA headquarters in Washington, D.C., to press them to block carryover efforts to allow markedly increased radiation exposures of the public. Dan's PowerPoint presentation to EPA about these very dangerous proposals can be viewed here (powerpoint or a powerpoint presentation viewer is required to view).
Also, Congressman Ed Markey, Chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment, wrote EPA on October 27, raising many of the issues CBG had put forward. His letter can be viewed here. It remains to be seen whether the Obama Administration, on these issues as on so many others, will in fact represent the change for which so many had hoped.
CBG's Hirsch testifies before U.S. Senate Environment Committee About "Nuclear Amnesia"
September 18 – At the invitation of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, CBG's Dan Hirsch testified in Washington on September 18. Using the history of nuclear accidents, radioactive spills, releases, and broken cleanup promises from the Santa Susana Field Lab as a case study, Hirsch warns that an effort to revive nuclear power risks a huge repeat of the disasters the last we tried this.
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