Boeing Company Loses Santa Susana Lawsuit; New Monitoring Detects Toxic Discharges into Los Angeles River

Press Release
Written By LA Waterkeeper

Environmental groups worked together to advocate for the Los Angeles Regional Water Board to strengthen a stormwater permit for the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. Their efforts resulted in an improved permit limiting the Los Angeles River from being polluted by long-lasting chemicals, PCBs, toxic metals, and radioactive waste from the site, as well as robust stormwater monitoring. After Boeing sued the Regional Board to overturn the new permit terms, environmental groups got involved to defend the permit, and the Los Angeles Superior Court recently ruled in favor of the Regional Board and rejected most of Boeing’s arguments.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

January 29, 2025

Benjamin Harris, Senior Staff Attorney, LA Waterkeeper
Annelisa Moe, Associate Director, Heal the Bay
Melissa Bumstead, Co-director, Parents Against SSFL

Rocketdyne building at Santa Susana Field Laboratory, Simi Hills, California. Image credit: Wikimedia Commons.

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), situated in the hills between Simi Valley and Los Angeles, was used for decades to test rocket engines and for nuclear experimentation. Accidents, spills, fires, leaks, and open-air burn pits resulted in the soil and groundwater being heavily contaminated with toxic chemicals, radioactive waste, and heavy metals, including lead and mercury. The legacy of contamination continues to pose environmental and public health concerns for the surrounding communities, where over 700,000 people live within ten miles of the site.

Dangerous contamination from the SSFL flows into local streams and creeks during heavy rains, ending up in the Los Angeles River (LA River) and Calleguas Creek Watershed, where water is used for various beneficial purposes such as ecological habitat purposes, drinking water, agriculture, and recreation.

The Boeing Company (Boeing) owns most of the 2,850-acre SSFL site and has been subject to a National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit issued by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Water Board) for stormwater discharges from the site. To date, Boeing has been fined over a million dollars for over 350 permit violations related to polluted stormwater runoff from the SSFL. 

In 2022 and 2023, environmental groups – Los Angeles Waterkeeper, Heal the Bay, the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation, Physicians for Social Responsibility - Los Angeles, Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab, and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility – advocated at the Regional Water Board for a stronger NPDES permit that included more substantial restrictions on contamination allowed into the LA River from the SSFL, improved outfall monitoring, a groundwater contamination study at the SSFL, and a requirement to use advanced Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) detection methods. The Regional Water Board agreed with environmental groups and adopted a more stringent permit on November 11, 2023, which was a substantial victory for the environment and public health.

Shortly after the new permit was issued, Boeing challenged the stronger permit terms in court as exceeding the Regional Water Board’s authority. Environmental groups got involved to defend the Regional Water Board’s permit and attempted to intervene in the lawsuit. The court denied this request but allowed the groups to file a “friend of the court” brief to advise the court about the importance of the stronger permit terms. On December 30, 2024, the court rejected Boeing’s challenge to the vast majority of the stronger permit terms, confirming that the Regional Water Board acted within its authority to reduce the amount of pollution allowed from the SSFL and require Boeing to conduct fulsome pollution monitoring moving forward.

“Boeing’s lawsuit to overturn the stronger stormwater permit was another failed attempt to evade responsibility for the environmental damage caused by its contaminated Santa Susana site,” said Benjamin Harris, Senior Staff Attorney for Los Angeles Waterkeeper. “We remain committed to holding Boeing accountable for its stormwater pollution from the site and will continue to track compliance with the new permit requirements upheld by the court.”

The court victory has already helped to expose the true extent of contamination at the SSFL site. Under the old and new permit, PCBs from the SSFL are not allowed to be discharged into local waterways in any amount. PCBs are known to cause cancer and illnesses and many of the PCBS detected at the SSFL are considered by the World Health Organization to be especially toxic. However, PCBs were not detected in Boeing’s previous monitoring of the SSFL’s rain runoff due to outdated testing technology. Due to the new permit requirements subsequently upheld by the court, PBCs were now detected over 40 times in the first quarter of 2024. Additional findings from the SSFL NPDES Discharge Monitoring Report in the 1st quarter of 2024 include:

  • PFA substances detected 38 times

  • Lead detected at 200 ppb; safe drinking water limits for lead are 5 ppb

  • Radioactive material: gross alpha analytes, gross beta analytes, radium-226 & 228, strontium-90, and uranium; in total detected 44 times

“This court decision is an important step toward better protecting our local waterways and communities from pollution associated with the Santa Susana Field Laboratory,” says Annelisa Ehret Moe of Heal the Bay. “By upholding improved stormwater monitoring and discharge requirements, the Los Angeles Regional Water Board is helping to reduce the release of harmful substances into the Los Angeles River. This is a meaningful win for public health, environmental stewardship, and the well-being of our watershed.”

Environmental groups will continue to track the results of Boeing’s stormwater monitoring to ensure that the public is fully aware of the highly toxic nature of the SSFL and stormwater runoff from the site.

LA Waterkeeper
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