A Great Bargain

Dear Land Owner,
I see you are selling some land near Chatsworth! With a view! I do feel like I should notify any potential buyers lest they remain unawares: the Santa Susana Field Lab was a rocket and nuclear test facility with a long and colorful history of meltdowns, partial meltdowns, radioactive fires, fission fires, and at least four nuclear reactor accidents. Because these were all ‘experiments’, there were no containment structures such as the ones found in commercial structures. The largest meltdown happened in 1959, and it is estimated that about 400 times the amount of radiation as Three Mile Island was released into the air. 22 out of 27 men who worked in the ‘burn pit’- whatever that may be- all dead of cancer. Stories abound of illegal burning of toxic waste, cancer deaths in the area are high, local water supplies are filled with all sorts of toxins. How this isn’t a superfund site is a great mystery to me. One story last year (my personal favorite) was about workers shooting barrels filled with radioactive waste in the nineties to dispose of them. But– there is good news! Boeing may be able to shirk its responsibility to clean up this area and may donate 2,400 acres to parkland! So the potential buyer will have a view of uninterrupted parkland.
But I see you haven’t left a number. Maybe you’re not so hopeful either.