[CPEO-MEF] Controversy over radiation at Brentwood (CA) VA site

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Digging Up the Dirt
'CityBeat' exposé on a Brentwood nuke dump inspires calls for new 
investigations by local and federal officials

~ By MICHAEL COLLINS ~
LA City Beat (CA)
June 29, 2006

~ Mr. Bad News: KNBC picks up the story ~

CityBeat's five-year investigation into a nuclear and chemical dump on 
the northern reaches of Brentwood's sprawling Veterans Administration 
campus has sparked widespread calls for further investigation that have 
now been taken up by officials from city council to the U.S. Congress. 
The articles ["Real Hot Property," May 18; and "Where the Bodies Are 
Buried," May 25] detailed the VA's and UCLA's use of the land as a 
dumping ground for at least 13 different radioactive isotopes and 
poisons for 16 years during the height of the Cold War – many of them in 
the bodies and tissues of animal and human radiation experimentation 
subjects. The impacted land includes part of the Barrington Dog Park, an 
accessible ravine next to a VA field used by hundreds of soccer-playing 
kids, and the athletic grounds of the private Brentwood School.

The VA reacted to the CityBeat report by saying it contained "a great 
deal of misinformation and misrepresentation of the facts about the 
Veterans Affairs' property," according to the center's director, Charles 
M. Dorman [Letters, June 15]. Local leaders had a distinctly different 
reaction.

"I am concerned about the possible environmental hazards at the VA 
site," Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Los Angeles) told CityBeat. The nuke dump 
lies in Waxman's congressional district. "In order to understand the 
extent of the problem, earlier this year I wrote to Secretary [James] 
Nicholson asking the Department [of Veterans Affairs] for all related 
documents. I hope these materials will allow us to evaluate the extent 
of the problem and determine what follow-up is needed, including testing 
and remediation."

...

For the entire article, see 
http://www.lacitybeat.com/article.php?id=3976&IssueNum=160

For more information, see www.EnviroReporter.com
--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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