Officials with Rocketdyne are giving the media their side of the story regarding contamination caused by their rocket and nuclear test site in the Santa Susana Mountains. They answer questions regarding their cleanup effort. View of an inactive space shuttle main engine test location at Rocketdyne facility in the Santa Susana Mountains above Simi Valley. (Photo by Anacleto Rapping/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District said local regulators do not require specific dust control measures as the buildings are torn down, despite the site’s troubled history and worries over radioactivity
.Boeing has almost completed the demolition of five buildings at its infamous Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Southern California, even as concerns mount among nearby families about potential health harms.
The buildings at the former Rocketdyne facility—where one of the worst nuclear meltdowns in U.S. history took place in 1959—were once used for Cold War-era nuclear energy research.
Larry Yee, the former chair of the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board, on Wednesday called the site “a mini Chernobyl in our backyard.”
Despite a groundswell of concerns about the process, the SSFL demolition at the lab between Simi Valley and Los Angeles began in late September. Four of the five buildings slated for demolition, all of which have sat unused for over 15 years, according to Boeing, have been brought down so far. The fifth demolition, at a site where more than 50 structures once stood, is slated to be completed this year.
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