Sent October 17, 2006 to Attorney General Lockyer from Senator Sheila James Keuhl:

October 17, 2006

Hon. Bill Lockyer, Attorney General

State of California

P.O. Box 944255

Sacramento, CA 94244-2550

RE: Request for subpoena action of Boeing/Rocketdyne’s records regarding

testing activities and related data at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory

Dear Attorney General Lockyer:

I am writing to strongly urge you to use the powers of your office to subpoena all relevant records regarding accidents, spills, releases, exposures and all meteorological information from 1948 to the present at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, and all expert witness reports, declarations and supporting documents from the recent Capello lawsuit and any other relevant documentation that Boeing/Rocketdyne has in their possession (or stored elsewhere).  It is my understanding that much of this information has already been entered into a computerized data bank that Boeing/Rocketdyne has scanned and which should now be made public in its entirety.

As you are aware, several recent reports, including one that has quite recently been released, have revealed a number of actions taken by Boeing over the years in an attempt to cover-up these incidents of contamination and threats to the public health and safety, as well as their unrelenting efforts to withhold all information related to these matters.  These actions have harmed the public in a number of ways over many years.

It is extremely important, as well as a matter of right, that the public have the ability to access this data on the DTSC website in order to be aware of all the contamination they might have been exposed to from Rocketdyne’s activities on the hill since the 1950’s.  Boeing may insist that they don’t have meteorological information from the 1950’s although I believe they do, but, surely, they have such information from 1994-1997 and this should be accessed. 

Every bit of the work conducted at Rocketdyne was paid for with taxpayer money.  The information that is being requested must be released to the public and should be public information, especially now that we are aware that Rocketdyne’s contaminating activities created a serious threat to public health.  I have spent virtually all of my twelve years in the legislature trying to pass bills forcing Boeing to do the right thing—to keep toxin-carrying trucks off of roads in populated areas--to operate with special safeguards to keep the toxins out of the air--to make sure that contaminated materials would be sent to landfills specifically suited to receiving them—and to keep residential development off the site unless it had been cleaned up to an EPA standard.  Unfortunately, due to very strong lobbying by Boeing, every one of these legislative efforts failed.  Enough is enough.  With the recent revelation that the contamination from this site has contributed to at least 260 and probably hundreds more cancer deaths, and two new studies from UCLA and the University of Michigan which were released in February of this year showing that the closer to the site that people live, the more susceptible they are to getting certain kinds of cancer, it is time to make this information public. 

Thank you for your consideration of this request.

Sincerely,

SHEILA JAMES KUEHL

Senator, 23^rd District