Bill to restrict sale of field lab property vital to city, state

It's better late than never when it comes to the City Council's recent decision to endorse state Senate Bill 990, six months after it was first introduced.

Our Republican-leaning council proved it could set aside politics and lend support to a bill written by a Democrat, state Sen. Sheila James Kuehl, and it also gave an important boost to legislation that would require cleaning up the land occupied by the Santa Susana Field Lab to meet the strictest standards of the United States Environmental Protection Agency, otherwise, the property could not be sold for residential or agricultural uses.

SB 990 passed the state Senate 21-16 and it now rests in the hands of the Assembly. The backing of the city most closely linked geographically to Rocketdyne and the field lab should go far in helping move the bill toward the governor's desk.

Here in Simi, the endorsement sends a message to the Boeing Co. and the Department of Energy that the city agrees with the federal court judge in San Francisco who ruled in May that the DOE has not been cleaning the site to meet proper standards and the land would have to be cleaned to higher standards if the DOE expects to complete its plan to release the site to Boeing.

This action puts the city side-by-side with citizens, scientists and a few local politicians who for years have called the cleanup substandard for a site that fewer than 50 years ago was home to the largest nuclear meltdown in United States history. It gives solid backing to many of those critics Boeing has labeled as misinformed rabble-rousers.

No other issue will affect the future of Simi Valley as much as the ultimate cleanup and sale of the field lab property.

SB 990 is one way to make sure future generations don't forget the lessons we are learning today about the possible contamination of those 2,800 acres of land in the Simi hills.

The City Council's endorsement- albeit a few months late- demonstrates its concern for the issue, and for Simi residents, those here now, and those who may come in the future.

Thanks to the council's action, the valid voices of concern just got a little louder.