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| Earth Day 2008 KB Home-DTSC Agreement What the Radiation Rangers and others are saying |
"The Good Reverend John" Southwick:
As I reflect on the past two years of meeting with the folks at city hall, dealing with the odd results from K.B home testing, and trying to understand
all the scientific data in Michael Collins’ reports; my first reaction was one of disbelief. How is it possible that we have actually beaten city hall?
I am so proud as are my Kids and Grandkids as I am sure I have mentioned before, I feel as though this is the most important thing I have done in
my life, so important that I think (hope) that I will be remembered as one of those folks that stopped K..B. from building homes in Runkle Canyon.
"Toxic Terry" Martheney:
I am so pleased to hear that KB Homes has entered into this agreement with the DTSC to review and assess Runkle Canyon for toxins. This act
alone gives me new hope that the mistakes that had been made in the past might not be passed along to our next generation. It seems that there is
not a night that goes by when listening to the news, that there are not huge problems facing the world today. Many of these thing we have no
control over and it is easy to get overwhelmed by the problems and so we do nothing although we wish we could.
The mistakes made years ago happened and the faces of those who were there at the time have all but gone. But we have the opportunity today to
do the right thing and truthfully look at something that could harm so many or maybe already has. We stand to be a part of a solution and not just
turn a blind eye to the things that are too scary to think about.
I can not tell you the hope that has sprung up at the thought that the DTSC led by Norm Riley will give us a truthful account of what dangers may
live in our hills. Also KB Homes entering this agreement to find out so that the long dark shadow of fear and whispers of dangers may once and for
all be brought to light.
I remember the night at the Rocketdyne work shop meeting where I had asked Norm Riley about KB Homes’ development and his agreeing to write
both the City of Simi and KB asking them to work together. He has proven to be a man of his word. He alone has breathed a breath of hope into
people who were feeling hopeless. I can not thank him enough and look forward to seeing what has seemed to be hidden for so long.
"Fearless Frank" Serafine:
When I moved to Simi Valley from Malibu three years ago little did I know what I was about to embark upon in this beautiful valley I live next to. I
was fortunate enough to have such important neighbors as Terry, Patty and Rev. John. We have become good strong friends having to fight a City
that has portrayed us as alarmists, open space advocates and dangerous people from the very beginning simply because we suspected something
was wrong up there in those hills.
The Radiation Rangers took the high road and [the others] even spent their own hard earned cash to test samples from the gooey soil and sheeny
water percolating from the Runkle Creek bed to prove to the City and KB Home that this Canyon that shadows Rocketdyne will never be fit for
development of any kind.
One thing that surprised me the most is how willing this City was to turn a blind eye to a developer like KB Homes that has had a known history of
fraud and manipulation with other planning departments in communities around America.
I'm happy to see the soil, ground water, strontium 90 and all future radiation testing will now be transparently conducted through the DTSC and
Norm Riley's people. I hope we can rest assured that we will see in our lifetimes that the Runkle Creek runoff and contamination it produces is
properly cleaned up to the highest US environmental standards not only for the purity of Simi Valley's wells and future drinking water supply but for
all the surrounding wildlife that rely on it for their source water as well.
William Preston Bowling, who has the website H2Oh No!!!, hosts the Rocketdyne Information Society and who, with Christina Walsh, is opening
the Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education, Los Angeles Chapter, sounds a much more cautious note:
The fact that KB Homes entered into a voluntary agreement with DTSC is good news, yet…
We have to look at what went on in past dealings with governmental regulatory agencies and what is going on now, case in point Centex Homes in
Dayton Canyon. A similar agreement was drafted up with Centex in 2005, yet now we are dealing with a proposed “No Further Action” as DTSC
used findings from All-West Remediation, a company hired by the developer.
DTSC did not do independent samples. We do not want DTSC to use third party results from a contractor hired by the developer.
The good news again is with DTSC oversight the public will be able to comment on certain measures regarding Runkle as they become available.
The public needs to attend every public forum regarding Runkle from here on out. With our voices heard, they cannot ignore the facts, the
contamination and the potential health issues.
Simi Valley City Council Member Steve Sojka, who had previously trashed the Radiation Rangers as dangerous, addresses the agreement
news at the May 5, 2008 meeting of the City Council:
I also met with Runkle Ranch and got an update. You know they heard that the Radiation Rangers have been talking about how that it might be
unsafe to develop up at the end of Sequoia because of Rocketdyne and the issues there. The good news is that we have an outside agency
looking at that at the State and, you know, they’ll be able to take a look at it that’s not backed by the City or backed by the Radiation Rangers. An
outside source that will tell us if it is safe or not and we should hear their determination in probably the next, I think, 75 days, somewhere in July. So
we’ll hear more about that.
As I reflect on the past two years of meeting with the folks at city hall, dealing with the odd results from K.B home testing, and trying to understand
all the scientific data in Michael Collins’ reports; my first reaction was one of disbelief. How is it possible that we have actually beaten city hall?
I am so proud as are my Kids and Grandkids as I am sure I have mentioned before, I feel as though this is the most important thing I have done in
my life, so important that I think (hope) that I will be remembered as one of those folks that stopped K..B. from building homes in Runkle Canyon.
"Toxic Terry" Martheney:
I am so pleased to hear that KB Homes has entered into this agreement with the DTSC to review and assess Runkle Canyon for toxins. This act
alone gives me new hope that the mistakes that had been made in the past might not be passed along to our next generation. It seems that there is
not a night that goes by when listening to the news, that there are not huge problems facing the world today. Many of these thing we have no
control over and it is easy to get overwhelmed by the problems and so we do nothing although we wish we could.
The mistakes made years ago happened and the faces of those who were there at the time have all but gone. But we have the opportunity today to
do the right thing and truthfully look at something that could harm so many or maybe already has. We stand to be a part of a solution and not just
turn a blind eye to the things that are too scary to think about.
I can not tell you the hope that has sprung up at the thought that the DTSC led by Norm Riley will give us a truthful account of what dangers may
live in our hills. Also KB Homes entering this agreement to find out so that the long dark shadow of fear and whispers of dangers may once and for
all be brought to light.
I remember the night at the Rocketdyne work shop meeting where I had asked Norm Riley about KB Homes’ development and his agreeing to write
both the City of Simi and KB asking them to work together. He has proven to be a man of his word. He alone has breathed a breath of hope into
people who were feeling hopeless. I can not thank him enough and look forward to seeing what has seemed to be hidden for so long.
"Fearless Frank" Serafine:
When I moved to Simi Valley from Malibu three years ago little did I know what I was about to embark upon in this beautiful valley I live next to. I
was fortunate enough to have such important neighbors as Terry, Patty and Rev. John. We have become good strong friends having to fight a City
that has portrayed us as alarmists, open space advocates and dangerous people from the very beginning simply because we suspected something
was wrong up there in those hills.
The Radiation Rangers took the high road and [the others] even spent their own hard earned cash to test samples from the gooey soil and sheeny
water percolating from the Runkle Creek bed to prove to the City and KB Home that this Canyon that shadows Rocketdyne will never be fit for
development of any kind.
One thing that surprised me the most is how willing this City was to turn a blind eye to a developer like KB Homes that has had a known history of
fraud and manipulation with other planning departments in communities around America.
I'm happy to see the soil, ground water, strontium 90 and all future radiation testing will now be transparently conducted through the DTSC and
Norm Riley's people. I hope we can rest assured that we will see in our lifetimes that the Runkle Creek runoff and contamination it produces is
properly cleaned up to the highest US environmental standards not only for the purity of Simi Valley's wells and future drinking water supply but for
all the surrounding wildlife that rely on it for their source water as well.
William Preston Bowling, who has the website H2Oh No!!!, hosts the Rocketdyne Information Society and who, with Christina Walsh, is opening
the Aerospace Cancer Museum of Education, Los Angeles Chapter, sounds a much more cautious note:
The fact that KB Homes entered into a voluntary agreement with DTSC is good news, yet…
We have to look at what went on in past dealings with governmental regulatory agencies and what is going on now, case in point Centex Homes in
Dayton Canyon. A similar agreement was drafted up with Centex in 2005, yet now we are dealing with a proposed “No Further Action” as DTSC
used findings from All-West Remediation, a company hired by the developer.
DTSC did not do independent samples. We do not want DTSC to use third party results from a contractor hired by the developer.
The good news again is with DTSC oversight the public will be able to comment on certain measures regarding Runkle as they become available.
The public needs to attend every public forum regarding Runkle from here on out. With our voices heard, they cannot ignore the facts, the
contamination and the potential health issues.
Simi Valley City Council Member Steve Sojka, who had previously trashed the Radiation Rangers as dangerous, addresses the agreement
news at the May 5, 2008 meeting of the City Council:
I also met with Runkle Ranch and got an update. You know they heard that the Radiation Rangers have been talking about how that it might be
unsafe to develop up at the end of Sequoia because of Rocketdyne and the issues there. The good news is that we have an outside agency
looking at that at the State and, you know, they’ll be able to take a look at it that’s not backed by the City or backed by the Radiation Rangers. An
outside source that will tell us if it is safe or not and we should hear their determination in probably the next, I think, 75 days, somewhere in July. So
we’ll hear more about that.
| We sure hope that Norm Riley and the DTSC really mean what they are saying but if what Bill says is true, we better keep a vigilant eye on the Runkle Canyon process because we not only know the track record of KB Homes and the City of Simi Valley, we know: There is trichloroethylene in Runkle Canyon's groundwater! "TCE vapors are extremely dangerous and can cause unconsciousness, impaired heart function and death," according to the latest Ventura County Reporter article Down the Test Tubes. "TCE has been detected in approximately 10 percent of several dozen groundwater samples collected on Runkle Canyon property." We only know about the TCE because of information given to the DTSC because of the Rocketdyne cleanup. Now is the time for the City of Simi Valley to stop this project dead in its tracks until a new EIR includes the TCE info. |
