Historic SSFL Agreement

Agreement Reached Between the Schwarzenegger Administration, CBG and Other Groups that Santa Susana Nuke Site will be Cleaned Up to Strictest Superfund Standards

At a press conference on January 15, Cal-EPA Secretary Linda Adams, CBG’s Dan Hirsch and others announced what Secretary Adams called a “historic agreement” between the Administration and environmental and community groups that the heavily contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory will be cleaned up to the strictest EPA Superfund standards. 

In a remarkable Letter of Intent negotiated by Secretary Adams and CBG and NRDC’s James Birkelund, the Schwarzenegger Administration has agreed to preserve the hard-fought SB 990, which sets strict cleanup standards long sought by the community. The bill was signed into law last October; but as a condition to get the bill signed, its sponsor, Senator Sheila Kuehl, had agreed to introduce legislation this year that could have gutted SB990’s cleanup standards. The outcry of concern that resulted led to days of negotiations in the last couple of weeks with Cal-EPA Secretary Adams and the signing of a Letter of Intent that preserves SB990 in its entirety while relieving Senator Kuehl of any obligation to introduce legislation that could weaken the law. Click here to read the letter of intent, and Cal-EPA’s letters to Senator Kuehl and US EPA.