California Time Bomb - Newsweek

This place (Santa Susana Pass) is in between San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley. I lived in San Fernando Valley for almost 5 years...

A new study says a 1959 meltdown at a rocket-testing facility may have caused as many as 1,800 cancer cases.

"Now, results of a new independent study released last week on the impact of the Rocketdyne event lend credence to Johnson’s suspicions and underscore the potentially dramatic effects that a single environmental mishap can have even decades later.

Among the findings of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Advisory Panel Study, which was funded by both the U.S. Department of Energy and the California Environmental Protection Agency: that from 260 to as many as 1,800 cancers in the area—many more than had previously been thought—could potentially be attributed to the radioactive material. What’s more, the study found, chemical and radioactive waste from the plant have polluted soil and groundwater in the vicinity. I

n a statement, Boeing, which now owns Rocketdyne but didn’t at the time of the 1959 accident, said an initial review of the five-year, federally funded research effort found it to have “significant flaws” and called the claims about the impact of the radioactive material “baseless, without scientific merit, and a great disservice to our employees and the community.” Johnson says that with the latest study in hand, she and other neighbors are now meeting with lawyers and may file suit against Boeing."

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