Disappointed with editorial on Santa Susana Field Lab

I have enjoyed reading the Simi Valley edition of the Acorn for years, but was greatly disappointed in it when I read the editorial posted in the Opinion section of the April 13 paper.

It was a shock to see the position of the paper siding with the activists and state Sen. Sheila Kuehl by being in favor of SB 990. A paper needs to be factual in its reporting. Good reporting also requires that the opinions voiced in it should reasonably represent the facts and protect the community it serves.

The above-mentioned opinion did neither. In fact, it did a great disservice to all those who live around Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory. If SB 990 becomes law, declaring the site a Superfund site, all of us will suffer. The property values for homes and real estate will depreciate overnight.

Every person who wants to sell will be legally required to declare that their property falls within the shadows of a Superfund site. All of us will see the values of our property immediately drop by tens, if not hundreds, of thousand of dollars with its passage and the mere signage by Gov. Schwarzenegger.

There is no question that we all want a safe and uncontaminated community to live in, which is exactly what we have now. SB 990 represents what the activists want and those who would like to see the 2,850 acres become a part of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy or become an area that can never be developed or used.

We have been misinformed repeatedly on how contaminated the area is by yellow journalism tactics like the recent postings in the Acorn and other papers.

They never shed light on the opposing side. The entire cleanup project is being overseen by state and federal agencies whose very existence is driven by protecting the citizens they serve- namely us. These are highly educated scientists with extensive and varied backgrounds in the environmental world of restoration.

The activists want to force cleanup way below what is required in today's world. Their standards would force enormous amounts of soil and debris to be trucked offsite. This would end up causing additional pollution, traffic and noise, needlessly putting all of us at risk.

The cleanup levels they have been working toward these past years serve all of us as a community- not just the unfounded desires of a few activists who don't give a hoot about the average person who lives near the site.

If I were to point to two of the many favorable facts that have surfaced in the numerous studies and investigations of the site, I would pick the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Epidemiological Study performed by UCLA and the independent Follow-On Worker Health Study to prove that the site should not be declared a Superfund site.

The conclusion in these studies is that the former employees of SSFL live healthier, longer lives than the average person in the United States.

Most of us live miles from the site. Our major chemical exposure lies under our kitchen counter or in the garage.

The Acorn's job, as a member of the news media, is to fairly represent the facts. I feel you have failed our community. Marston Robertson Simi Valley