Dear Community Member,
Today, Boeing requested a federal court review a recent California law, Senate Bill 990 (SB990), which was passed solely to regulate the environmental cleanup of Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a former federal government rocket engine testing and energy research facility northwest of Los Angeles, Calif.
Boeing reluctantly took this action due to our concern that the changes wrought by SB990 in the normal cleanup process under state and federal laws could cause unintended consequences that would damage the biologic, historic and cultural resources of Santa Susana, which is home to several endangered species and a wide assortment of plants and wildlife. It also could negatively affect the local community by subjecting them to drastically increased levels of large truck traffic, with as many as 100,000 additional round-trips according to some of the estimates by our consultants.
We were hopeful that these concerns could have been resolved by allowing us to reserve our legal rights - as the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has done in other cleanup orders - while we worked with the Department, NASA and DOE to complete the site investigation and implement SB990 in conjunction with existing state and federal laws that are designed to allow these concerns to be appropriately balanced. We thought we had reached virtual consensus on such an agreement this summer, and even after the State's regrettable decision to release a draft that excluded Boeing, we remained hopeful that a consensus could still be reached. However, the DTSC's recent demands, including that Boeing waive rather than reserve our legal rights, left us no choice but to file the case now.
Prior to taking this action, Boeing, along with NASA and DOE, worked tirelessly with the Department to negotiate a superseding Consent Order that would establish a clear and rational approach to address the provisions of SB990, in order to ensure continued progress and expedite the cleanup of Santa Susana. Throughout this process, we were encouraged by the input we received from the community supporting a process in which Boeing, NASA, DOE, and the Department work together to complete the cleanup.
We remain committed to cleaning up the site and protecting Santa Susana as open space, and will continue doing so while the court decides this case.
Sincerely,
Kamara
Kamara| Noelle| Sams
Environmental Communications
The Boeing Company
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