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| Runkledyne History |
The lethal nature of Runkle Canyon’s pollution problems were first exposed by investigative journalist Michael Collins in Los Angeles CityBeat
and ValleyBeat on March 10, 2005 with a cover story called “NEIGHBORHOOD THREAT - Runkle Canyon is poised to be Simi Valley’s newest
neighborhood. But did the city misinterpret the risk of radioactive material in the ground?” Read this shocking story here.
Despite these revelations, the City of Simi Valley raised no concerns to the KB Homes when it bought the property from GreenPark Runkle
Canyon in the summer of last year after the expose came out.
On September 15, 2005, the Ventura Local Agency Formation Commission went ahead with the plan to incorporate Runkle Canyon into
the City of Simi Valley.
Earlier this year, a Rocketdyne official said to reporter Collins that “The strontium on Runkle Ranch, if it was there, is not there anymore.”
Collins found that strange and did a little investigating and discovered that the government and developer had secretly retested the
property and, even though the tests seemed fishy, the results still indicated that Runkle Canyon had high levels of Strontium-90! Click
here to read “HOT PROPERTY - Runkle Canyon developers claim mysterious new state tests have erased previously high levels of
radioactive contamination."
On September 21, 2006, Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat continued its investigation of Runkle Canyon. Click here to read "THE
HILLS HAVE EYES - Simi Valley residents unite to fight ‘hot’ KB Homes development in Runkle Canyon.”
A week later, Michael Collins wrote about the community's reaction in what it perceived as a betrayal of the public trust by the City for
accepting KB Homes' assertion that all was well with Runkle Canyon. Click here to read "UNRAVELING RUNKLE."
"REINING IN RUNKLE," in the October 26, 2006 issue of Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat, brings the happy news that the City has
delayed issuing grading and construction permits before we get some answers about what Collins unearthed from three government
agencies and can be read here.
In late November and early December 2006, EnviroReporter.com published its Runkle Canyon: News & Analysis, an assessment of the
Runkle Canyon EIR and updated its time line. It also come across evidence of contamination in a creek alongside Runkle Road.
Our neighbors Frank Serafine and Rev. John Southwick began meeting in January with Mayor Paul Miller and City Manager Mike Sedell. The
City asked us to create a set of questions for the California Department of Health Services, which were submitted February 28.
On March 15, 2007, Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat published a new article focusing on this new developments. Click here to read
"DUST IN THE WIND - Simi Valley still looking for answers about Runkle Canyon radiation."
For reporting and website work that included the continuing Runkle Canyon expose, Michael Collins and Denise Anne Duffield won
numerous awards at the 49th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards held by the Los Angeles Press Club June 16th. Collins earned
the top honor of Journalist of the Year - Print Under 100,000 Circulation for his writing in Los Angeles CityBeat!
The Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat cover story that has blown the lid off of the Runkle Canyon fiasco is "THE RADIATION RANGERS -
Developers of Simi Valley’s Runkle Canyon claim the water tested clean. Then a band of citizens discovered super-toxic goo seeping from
the ground." Click here to read this June 21, 2007 article that swept aside KB Homes' claim that the surface water is clean and how the
City bought the developer's line lock stock and barrel.
The very next week, June 28, 2007, CityBeat published a nasty letter calling reporter Michael Collins an "environmental Nazi" and accused
us of planting contamination in Runkle Canyon.
Soon the Simi Valley Acorn and the Ventura County Star jumped in with articles that mischaracterized what had happened to lead up to
and during our own testing, and what was soon to follow: the City of Simi Valley having to test itself on July 2 with our very own The Good
Reverend John leading a group up the canyon to gather water and soil samples! As analyzed in EnviroReporter.com's Pat-Chem Report
and Analysis, these newspapers, and our local leaders, had problems keeping their "facts" straight so Collins set the record straight.
On July 17, 2007, the Ventura Board of Supervisors held its first ever meeting in Simi Valley and the Radiation Rangers were out in force,
including Perchlorate Patty and Toxic Terry Matheney. "You know, our home value goes up if this project goes through but I cannot
allow the people of Simi Valley to be poisoned and therefore I’ve got to make a stand," Toxic Terry said. "This is why we went into that
canyon and this is why we took those tests."
"Well, first off, I’ve got to address Mayor Paul Miller," continued the Good Rev. "The gloves didn’t bubble but you’re still in trouble. I just
wish Paul that I was in your position right now so I could proudly say the EIR for this project is flawed -- let’s get a new one. That’s what we
need to do."
Fearless Frank Serafine went on to say, "This project is probably the most important development environmental issue facing this county
since Ahmanson Ranch. The problem with this property is that it’s much closer than Ahmanson Ranch. Ahmanson Ranch was shut for this
very reason – it wasn’t shut down because it was a pretty park – it was shut down because Rocketdyne’s pollution was running into the
areas. That’s the same thing that is happening here. We found that arsenic up there."
We were so very heartened when now-former Supervisor John Flynn, who personally awarded Collins with a Ventura County Resolution
praising the reporter's work, said that he was concerned about the Runkle Canyon situation.
Knowing full well that the City will fudge the facts about Runkle Canyon as much as they can get away with, we dove into the details of just
how the arsenic from Rocketdyne could be the source of the canyon's super-high readings. Click here to read our Runkledyne Arsenic
page.
Just as disturbing as the high arsenic and Strontium-90 in Runkle Canyon is the story of the developer, KB Home. An ABC News 20-20
expose of KB Home is quite revealing, so much so that we decided to write a few facts when one considers trusting this developer in our
page that explores some of its history: KB Home - Where Trust Is NOT Built.
On July 26, 2007 Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat published "Bubble Trouble - City of Simi Valley forced to test Runkle Canyon water and
soil for arsenic." Click here to read it.
As the weeks rolled by, the Radiation Rangers began wondering what happened to the results of the City's tests July 2nd. After all, it only
takes about a week to get the results and the City used the same lab we did. On August 6, Fearless Frank and the Good Rev went to City
Hall and were told by Assistant City Manager Laura Behjan that the City's results found arsenic but need to be reviewed by another
company for an "executive analysis." If you're wondering what that "executive analysis" means, you haven't been paying attention.
The next week the results came in and they were grim: more arsenic, barium, nickel and vanadium than we found, but also chromium,
cadmium and lead! Yet you would never know it from what was coming out of the mouths of our "leaders" who were so clueless as to think
we had retested with them and were holding out on the results! The testing we had already done May 18th told us we needed to know yet,
for some reason, these elected officials thought the Good Rev. John was pulling samples!
At a City Council meeting August 20, City officials were even claiming that, contrary to their own Tetra Tech report, the polluted water
coming down Runkle to the Arroyo Simi wasn't a "source" to our drinking water. Not only is it, our groundwater makes up 20% of what we
drink in Simi Valley. You just have to watch the City Council as they stumble through this issue they give no credence to and/or do not fully
understand. Watch them in action here, and 'jump' forward to 8A to see this on their own video.
If you'd rather, read this bizarre exchange. It really makes you wonder what's in our water, metaphorically-speaking, to have the City
Council be so clueless about who is even conducting tests in Runkle Canyon.
Another thing you'll see if you watch the meeting, jumping to Public Comment or 3A: the Good Rev. John informing the council that we
have gone and filed formal complaints with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the Los Angeles Regional
Water Quality Control Board because we have lost faith in the City of Simi Valley to address this issue with good faith and intelligence.
This latest round of us Radiation Rangers trying to reason with the people who will determine the future of our valley is well-documented in
"Spin Cycle - Selling Runkle Canyon pollution report as clean" in the Ventura County Reporter and "Spin Cycle - Simi Council sells
disturbing Runkle Canyon pollution report as clean" in another article in Los Angeles CityBeat.
During this time, "Perchlorate Patty" figured out where all that arsenic, and other toxic heavy metals, were probably coming from: the
Santa Susana Field Laboratory as she shows in our Runkledyne Arsenic page. We explored the literally explosive history of KB Home
where the company built on a bombing range in Texas in an issue that got national attention.
For three days in early October 2007, KB Home, the City of Simi Valley, the California Department of Public Health (formerly CDHS), and
several labs descended on Runkle Canyon for another round of soil sampling and testing for Strontium-90. According to CDPH's Robert
Greger, at the October 18th Santa Susana Field Laboratory Work Group meeting at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, KB Home hired
Dade Moeller to supervise sampling about 60 samples over the about 130 acres that the developer wants to build on. Most of the samples
were taken at zero to six inches deep, with about 15 to 20% of them being "blind tested" at another lab than KB Home is using, to ensure
that the results are on the up and up.
We applaud this new testing especially considering that KB Home has repeatedly said it didn't need to do anymore testing according to the
Runkle Canyon website. There they sing a different song. "We believe that the extensive number of independent tests previously
conducted on the property (including testing performed by the California Department of Health Services) is more than sufficient to
determine the levels of any hazardous substances in the soil and the health risks posed for humans who inhabit the property," KB Homes
says. "We already have independent tests that indicate that the property is suitable for residential development and no new information has
been presented that would call into question those conclusions."
The results from these tests are due around the beginning of November 2007. The city has indicated that if the results are 'acceptable,'
then no new EIR is needed and it will be time to permit grading and construction. We say that's bunk because history is marching by KB
Home and the Runkle Canyon development.
On October 13, 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB-990 which will hopefully force Boeing to clean up Rocketdyne to EPA
Superfund standards where no poison, radioactive or chemical, will cause more than one in a million cancers. Presently, the readings of
Strontium-90 in Runkle Canyon soil over the years in a number of samplings is about five in a million. KB Home claims the risk is about a one
quarter in a million, about a difference of 18 times less than the actual numbers bear out.
Once the cleanup is over, Boeing will transfer the land free of charge to the State as parkland. Yet KB Home has five times what is
acceptable up at Rocketdyne in just Strontium-90 alone, and has no plan to address the extraordinary heavy metals pollution in Runkle
Canyon simply because they didn't test for it.
This isn't acceptable. What's good enough for Boeing is good enough for KB Home and the City of Simi Valley. There must be a new EIR if
not just for the overwhelming evidence that the city ignored the Strontium-90 in their 2004 approval of the Runkle development EIR, but
for the heavy metals found by the Radiation Rangers and the City of Simi Valley in separate tests.
Not only does this new information about radiation and chemical pollution necessitate a new EIR, so does the fact that Simi Valley is about
to lose 18% of our water due to a cutoff in supplies. So how will we afford the millions of gallons of water to suppress the dust cloud that
could be generated by this development? How do we afford to supply those extra hundreds of homes?
Simple: we draw even more on the water that Rocketdyne is probably polluting, the Simi Valley aquifer which accounts already for 20% of
our drinking supply. These groundwater dynamics are analyzed by Dr. Ali Tabidian, a professor at California State University, Northridge,
and it is clear that the more that we draw upon this source, the more we will pull pollutants down off of Rocketdyne and towards our taps.
This is why issued an Action Alert to get the citizenry to come to Simi Valley City Hall October 22, 2007 to say "If cleanup is good enough
for Boeing and Governor Schwarzenegger, then it's good enough for KB Home and the City of Simi Valley," which, ironically, the city
supported. "The bottom line is that thE land is polluted and needs to be cleaned up," Mayor Paul Miller told the Simi Valley Acorn. "Hopefully
the Legislature will take steps to ensure that."
Sounds encouraging, right? Just like what Council Member Glen Becerra said too: "I took a lot of heat for my initial statement but that to
me was the right thing to do," Becerra told the paper. "I'm thrilled that everybody's come to that conclusion."
Really? We doubt Becerra and Miller are in any mood to derail the Runkle Canyon project to demand a new EIR anytime soon simply
because they act like they are in the pockets of the developers as we analyze. That is why we have asked our neighbors and
concerned citizens to say NO to this Mickey Mouse development before it launches a radiation-impacted dust cloud over our land!
JOIN US TO STOP RUNKLEDYNE!
and ValleyBeat on March 10, 2005 with a cover story called “NEIGHBORHOOD THREAT - Runkle Canyon is poised to be Simi Valley’s newest
neighborhood. But did the city misinterpret the risk of radioactive material in the ground?” Read this shocking story here.
Despite these revelations, the City of Simi Valley raised no concerns to the KB Homes when it bought the property from GreenPark Runkle
Canyon in the summer of last year after the expose came out.
On September 15, 2005, the Ventura Local Agency Formation Commission went ahead with the plan to incorporate Runkle Canyon into
the City of Simi Valley.
Earlier this year, a Rocketdyne official said to reporter Collins that “The strontium on Runkle Ranch, if it was there, is not there anymore.”
Collins found that strange and did a little investigating and discovered that the government and developer had secretly retested the
property and, even though the tests seemed fishy, the results still indicated that Runkle Canyon had high levels of Strontium-90! Click
here to read “HOT PROPERTY - Runkle Canyon developers claim mysterious new state tests have erased previously high levels of
radioactive contamination."
On September 21, 2006, Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat continued its investigation of Runkle Canyon. Click here to read "THE
HILLS HAVE EYES - Simi Valley residents unite to fight ‘hot’ KB Homes development in Runkle Canyon.”
A week later, Michael Collins wrote about the community's reaction in what it perceived as a betrayal of the public trust by the City for
accepting KB Homes' assertion that all was well with Runkle Canyon. Click here to read "UNRAVELING RUNKLE."
"REINING IN RUNKLE," in the October 26, 2006 issue of Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat, brings the happy news that the City has
delayed issuing grading and construction permits before we get some answers about what Collins unearthed from three government
agencies and can be read here.
In late November and early December 2006, EnviroReporter.com published its Runkle Canyon: News & Analysis, an assessment of the
Runkle Canyon EIR and updated its time line. It also come across evidence of contamination in a creek alongside Runkle Road.
Our neighbors Frank Serafine and Rev. John Southwick began meeting in January with Mayor Paul Miller and City Manager Mike Sedell. The
City asked us to create a set of questions for the California Department of Health Services, which were submitted February 28.
On March 15, 2007, Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat published a new article focusing on this new developments. Click here to read
"DUST IN THE WIND - Simi Valley still looking for answers about Runkle Canyon radiation."
For reporting and website work that included the continuing Runkle Canyon expose, Michael Collins and Denise Anne Duffield won
numerous awards at the 49th Annual Southern California Journalism Awards held by the Los Angeles Press Club June 16th. Collins earned
the top honor of Journalist of the Year - Print Under 100,000 Circulation for his writing in Los Angeles CityBeat!
The Los Angeles CityBeat and ValleyBeat cover story that has blown the lid off of the Runkle Canyon fiasco is "THE RADIATION RANGERS -
Developers of Simi Valley’s Runkle Canyon claim the water tested clean. Then a band of citizens discovered super-toxic goo seeping from
the ground." Click here to read this June 21, 2007 article that swept aside KB Homes' claim that the surface water is clean and how the
City bought the developer's line lock stock and barrel.
The very next week, June 28, 2007, CityBeat published a nasty letter calling reporter Michael Collins an "environmental Nazi" and accused
us of planting contamination in Runkle Canyon.
Soon the Simi Valley Acorn and the Ventura County Star jumped in with articles that mischaracterized what had happened to lead up to
and during our own testing, and what was soon to follow: the City of Simi Valley having to test itself on July 2 with our very own The Good
Reverend John leading a group up the canyon to gather water and soil samples! As analyzed in EnviroReporter.com's Pat-Chem Report
and Analysis, these newspapers, and our local leaders, had problems keeping their "facts" straight so Collins set the record straight.
On July 17, 2007, the Ventura Board of Supervisors held its first ever meeting in Simi Valley and the Radiation Rangers were out in force,
including Perchlorate Patty and Toxic Terry Matheney. "You know, our home value goes up if this project goes through but I cannot
allow the people of Simi Valley to be poisoned and therefore I’ve got to make a stand," Toxic Terry said. "This is why we went into that
canyon and this is why we took those tests."
"Well, first off, I’ve got to address Mayor Paul Miller," continued the Good Rev. "The gloves didn’t bubble but you’re still in trouble. I just
wish Paul that I was in your position right now so I could proudly say the EIR for this project is flawed -- let’s get a new one. That’s what we
need to do."
Fearless Frank Serafine went on to say, "This project is probably the most important development environmental issue facing this county
since Ahmanson Ranch. The problem with this property is that it’s much closer than Ahmanson Ranch. Ahmanson Ranch was shut for this
very reason – it wasn’t shut down because it was a pretty park – it was shut down because Rocketdyne’s pollution was running into the
areas. That’s the same thing that is happening here. We found that arsenic up there."
We were so very heartened when now-former Supervisor John Flynn, who personally awarded Collins with a Ventura County Resolution
praising the reporter's work, said that he was concerned about the Runkle Canyon situation.
Knowing full well that the City will fudge the facts about Runkle Canyon as much as they can get away with, we dove into the details of just
how the arsenic from Rocketdyne could be the source of the canyon's super-high readings. Click here to read our Runkledyne Arsenic
page.
Just as disturbing as the high arsenic and Strontium-90 in Runkle Canyon is the story of the developer, KB Home. An ABC News 20-20
expose of KB Home is quite revealing, so much so that we decided to write a few facts when one considers trusting this developer in our
page that explores some of its history: KB Home - Where Trust Is NOT Built.
On July 26, 2007 Los Angeles CityBeat/ValleyBeat published "Bubble Trouble - City of Simi Valley forced to test Runkle Canyon water and
soil for arsenic." Click here to read it.
As the weeks rolled by, the Radiation Rangers began wondering what happened to the results of the City's tests July 2nd. After all, it only
takes about a week to get the results and the City used the same lab we did. On August 6, Fearless Frank and the Good Rev went to City
Hall and were told by Assistant City Manager Laura Behjan that the City's results found arsenic but need to be reviewed by another
company for an "executive analysis." If you're wondering what that "executive analysis" means, you haven't been paying attention.
The next week the results came in and they were grim: more arsenic, barium, nickel and vanadium than we found, but also chromium,
cadmium and lead! Yet you would never know it from what was coming out of the mouths of our "leaders" who were so clueless as to think
we had retested with them and were holding out on the results! The testing we had already done May 18th told us we needed to know yet,
for some reason, these elected officials thought the Good Rev. John was pulling samples!
At a City Council meeting August 20, City officials were even claiming that, contrary to their own Tetra Tech report, the polluted water
coming down Runkle to the Arroyo Simi wasn't a "source" to our drinking water. Not only is it, our groundwater makes up 20% of what we
drink in Simi Valley. You just have to watch the City Council as they stumble through this issue they give no credence to and/or do not fully
understand. Watch them in action here, and 'jump' forward to 8A to see this on their own video.
If you'd rather, read this bizarre exchange. It really makes you wonder what's in our water, metaphorically-speaking, to have the City
Council be so clueless about who is even conducting tests in Runkle Canyon.
Another thing you'll see if you watch the meeting, jumping to Public Comment or 3A: the Good Rev. John informing the council that we
have gone and filed formal complaints with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and the Los Angeles Regional
Water Quality Control Board because we have lost faith in the City of Simi Valley to address this issue with good faith and intelligence.
This latest round of us Radiation Rangers trying to reason with the people who will determine the future of our valley is well-documented in
"Spin Cycle - Selling Runkle Canyon pollution report as clean" in the Ventura County Reporter and "Spin Cycle - Simi Council sells
disturbing Runkle Canyon pollution report as clean" in another article in Los Angeles CityBeat.
During this time, "Perchlorate Patty" figured out where all that arsenic, and other toxic heavy metals, were probably coming from: the
Santa Susana Field Laboratory as she shows in our Runkledyne Arsenic page. We explored the literally explosive history of KB Home
where the company built on a bombing range in Texas in an issue that got national attention.
For three days in early October 2007, KB Home, the City of Simi Valley, the California Department of Public Health (formerly CDHS), and
several labs descended on Runkle Canyon for another round of soil sampling and testing for Strontium-90. According to CDPH's Robert
Greger, at the October 18th Santa Susana Field Laboratory Work Group meeting at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, KB Home hired
Dade Moeller to supervise sampling about 60 samples over the about 130 acres that the developer wants to build on. Most of the samples
were taken at zero to six inches deep, with about 15 to 20% of them being "blind tested" at another lab than KB Home is using, to ensure
that the results are on the up and up.
We applaud this new testing especially considering that KB Home has repeatedly said it didn't need to do anymore testing according to the
Runkle Canyon website. There they sing a different song. "We believe that the extensive number of independent tests previously
conducted on the property (including testing performed by the California Department of Health Services) is more than sufficient to
determine the levels of any hazardous substances in the soil and the health risks posed for humans who inhabit the property," KB Homes
says. "We already have independent tests that indicate that the property is suitable for residential development and no new information has
been presented that would call into question those conclusions."
The results from these tests are due around the beginning of November 2007. The city has indicated that if the results are 'acceptable,'
then no new EIR is needed and it will be time to permit grading and construction. We say that's bunk because history is marching by KB
Home and the Runkle Canyon development.
On October 13, 2007, Governor Schwarzenegger signed SB-990 which will hopefully force Boeing to clean up Rocketdyne to EPA
Superfund standards where no poison, radioactive or chemical, will cause more than one in a million cancers. Presently, the readings of
Strontium-90 in Runkle Canyon soil over the years in a number of samplings is about five in a million. KB Home claims the risk is about a one
quarter in a million, about a difference of 18 times less than the actual numbers bear out.
Once the cleanup is over, Boeing will transfer the land free of charge to the State as parkland. Yet KB Home has five times what is
acceptable up at Rocketdyne in just Strontium-90 alone, and has no plan to address the extraordinary heavy metals pollution in Runkle
Canyon simply because they didn't test for it.
This isn't acceptable. What's good enough for Boeing is good enough for KB Home and the City of Simi Valley. There must be a new EIR if
not just for the overwhelming evidence that the city ignored the Strontium-90 in their 2004 approval of the Runkle development EIR, but
for the heavy metals found by the Radiation Rangers and the City of Simi Valley in separate tests.
Not only does this new information about radiation and chemical pollution necessitate a new EIR, so does the fact that Simi Valley is about
to lose 18% of our water due to a cutoff in supplies. So how will we afford the millions of gallons of water to suppress the dust cloud that
could be generated by this development? How do we afford to supply those extra hundreds of homes?
Simple: we draw even more on the water that Rocketdyne is probably polluting, the Simi Valley aquifer which accounts already for 20% of
our drinking supply. These groundwater dynamics are analyzed by Dr. Ali Tabidian, a professor at California State University, Northridge,
and it is clear that the more that we draw upon this source, the more we will pull pollutants down off of Rocketdyne and towards our taps.
This is why issued an Action Alert to get the citizenry to come to Simi Valley City Hall October 22, 2007 to say "If cleanup is good enough
for Boeing and Governor Schwarzenegger, then it's good enough for KB Home and the City of Simi Valley," which, ironically, the city
supported. "The bottom line is that thE land is polluted and needs to be cleaned up," Mayor Paul Miller told the Simi Valley Acorn. "Hopefully
the Legislature will take steps to ensure that."
Sounds encouraging, right? Just like what Council Member Glen Becerra said too: "I took a lot of heat for my initial statement but that to
me was the right thing to do," Becerra told the paper. "I'm thrilled that everybody's come to that conclusion."
Really? We doubt Becerra and Miller are in any mood to derail the Runkle Canyon project to demand a new EIR anytime soon simply
because they act like they are in the pockets of the developers as we analyze. That is why we have asked our neighbors and
concerned citizens to say NO to this Mickey Mouse development before it launches a radiation-impacted dust cloud over our land!
JOIN US TO STOP RUNKLEDYNE!
© Copyright 2006-2010 StopRunkledyne.com
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The Runkle Canyon Timeline is an
excellent overview of the history of this
beautiful yet troubled land. It is essential
to look at it to understand this issue.
We are in the process of updating this.
excellent overview of the history of this
beautiful yet troubled land. It is essential
to look at it to understand this issue.
We are in the process of updating this.
| (past to present in descending order) |