FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2025
Contact:
Jeff Ruch [PEER] (510) 213-7026 jruch@peer.org
Melissa Bumstead [Parents Against SSFL] (818) 233-0642 melissabumstead@gmail.com
Challenge to Disastrous Santa Susana Cleanup Advances
Newsom-Boeing Backroom Deal Illegally Condemns Site to Uninhabitability
Washington, DC — One of the most toxic sites in the country will remain so in perpetuity under an agreement between Boeing Co. and California Governor Gavin Newsom, according to a legal brief filed today in a lawsuit challenging the deal. Filed today in Ventura County Superior Court, the opening brief on the merits is a major step forward in the suit by Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab, Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles (PSR-LA), and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
Located in Ventura County, thirty miles from downtown L.A., the Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL) has undergone decades of rocketry and nuclear research – and a reactor meltdown. Under a widely criticized deal negotiated behind closed doors between Boeing and the Newson administration, most of Santa Susana’s contaminated soil would not be cleaned up, posing a hazard to wildlife onsite and the health of the public offsite for centuries to come.
The suit contends that the “confidential” agreement violates the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) by precluding consideration of key remediation measures.
“This closed-door deal greatly benefits Boeing and makes a mockery of the CEQA process,” stated PEER Senior Counsel Jeff Ruch. “Under this deal, nothing that grows on the site will be fit for human consumption for the known future.”
Among the features of the Boeing-Newson agreement are provisions which, among other things, –
- Allow a 100-fold increase in the widely accepted one in a million human health risk cleanup standard. This relaxation means adverse effects will continue to reach offsite;
- Limit cleanups to no more than 444,000 cubic yards of soil from the 2,850-acre site; and
- Subject wildlife onsite to lethal and “observable” sublethal effects.
“Boeing is hoping to save millions of dollars through this agreement to get out of their legal obligations to properly clean up the SSFL,” said Melissa Bumstead, Co-Director of Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab, representing families afflicted with diseases associated with contaminants at the site. “Boeing knows it’s harming our community, but they care more about profit.”
“Their agreement reverses decades of progress towards a complete cleanup,” Bumstead added. “No child should get cancer if we can prevent it, yet our community is exposed to toxic pollutants every time it rains or the wind blows.”
The suit was originally filed in October 2022, but pre-trial motions and appeals consumed the ensuing months. Today’s opening brief kicks off a briefing schedule with a Superior Court ruling expected this fall.
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Look at ongoing danger to wildlife
