Exclusive 2019 Update: VICTORY AT THE VA – West LA Veterans Administration master plan protects old nuclear dump from development
EnviroReporter.com – December 9, 2009
Two years ago, the Department of Veterans Affairs promised a $1 million investigation of a biomedical nuclear and chemical dump on its land in Brentwood. This was the result of revelations about the dump that initially broke May 18, 2006 by EnviroReporter.com. Since then, our investigation into the VA has broadened in scope and depth.
READ “Brentwood’s Toxic Grave – Historic dumping grounds beneath the spectacular VA land finally get tested” in the December 10, 2009 issue of the LA Weekly. Soldiers’ tombstones are emerging from the muck of a biomedical nuclear and chemical dump on the Department of Veterans Affairs grounds in Brentwood, California. The VA says its long-promised $1 million investigation of the dump is still on yet it hasn’t noticed the gravestones. The dump is far larger than previously known. Adjacent Brentwood School’s athletic fields may have been impacted with heavy metal contamination with football field reportedly built over trench of syringes.
How deep lay these tombstones, or even how many of them are buried in the Brentwood dump, is currently unknown. What is known is that the disposal of these tombstones in such a manner is expressly against VA regulations: “Marble and granite headstones or markers that are permanently removed from a grave must be destroyed, ensuring that the inscription is no longer legible.”
What is also known is that nothing has been done about this illegal disposal of veterans’ tombstones even though California Senator Diane Feinstein and her district director, Trevor Daley, have known about the dumping since January 16, 2008.
READ “Dereliction of Duty” where the West LA VA’s nuclear dump problems got more grave.
SEE Atomic Tombstones Gallery. From January 2008 to November 2009, these photograph galleries document the dump and the tombstones.
SEE Phase Two testing of the dump that began November 30, 2009 and is continuing through early December.
READ EnviroReporter.com‘s analysis of the nuclear dump documents given to Rep. Henry Waxman by the VA that show the extent of the dump and its impact on Brentwood School’s athletic fields.
WATCH news coverage of the dump by KNBC Channel 4 News and KCET‘s “Life & Times” program.
READ EnviroReporter.com‘s extensive investigation of the dump, the revelations of which helped derail a $4 billion Bush Administration plan to develop the VA. Includes articles, maps, and documents.
READ EnviroReporter.com‘s analysis of the Phase One report which notes numerous mistakes and huge areas of the dump that were supposed to have been tested but were not.
SEE photo galleries of the dump, VA, Brentwood School and Phase One testing of the dump. Galleries include animal and human radiation experiments, past attempts to find the dump, and EnviroReporter.com‘s discovery of radioactive material in the dump.
Galleries also include the dog park partly over the dump, Veterans protesting 16-acre public park on VA land and a visit to the VA by Senator Diane Feinstein on January 16, 2008 when her staff was first informed of the dump’s tombstones by EnviroReporter.com‘s Michael Collins.
Exclusive 2019 Update: VICTORY AT THE VA – West LA Veterans Administration master plan protects old nuclear dump from development
The VA needs more ‘Watchdogs’ like you. Outstanding reporting on a BAD situation. Thank you for a job well done and please do keep us informed as this continues.
Also if you’re reading this and you’re a Veteran, tell the reporter Michael Collins “Thank you” for looking out for us Veterans’ interests, it is only ‘Good Manners’.
Great reporting. Thanks for making sure this isn’t swept under the rug.