California
Offshore wind or tribal rights? Biden’s California dilemma.
MORRO BAY, California — This picturesque bay located four hours south of San Francisco is at the center of an election year conflict for the Biden administration that could threaten its offshore wind ambitions on the West Coast.
Several offshore wind developers want to build the state’s first farms off the coast here, projects that are needed for California — and the White House — to reach decarbonization goals.
But this summer, the administration is also likely to designate the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in coastal waters that surround Morro Bay — a plan that the offshore wind industry says blocks their access to the grid.
Equinor, Golden State Wind and Invenergy California Offshore — companies with offshore wind farms planned off the bay — hope to carve out guaranteed paths for their power lines to reach shore, when the NOAA finalizes the sanctuary in coming months. Proponents of the sanctuary, meanwhile, don’t want to reduce its size and are pushing for a requirement that wind developers seek permits for power lines through protected waters.
“The ocean should not be the sacrificial lamb for our unquenchable thirst for energy,” said Violet Sage Walker, chair of the Northern Chumash Tribal Council, the Indigenous tribe that proposed the marine sanctuary to NOAA.
The conflict underscores how the administration’s ambitions for low-carbon energy deployment can clash with its priorities for environmental protection and tribal relations. It’s a tension that is playing out with other energy projects, and threatens to hamper progress toward the president’s climate goals at a time he’s counting on environmentalists to back him strongly in the 2024 election campaign. The Morro Bay fight also shows how federal agencies tasked with conservation are facing new disputes with emerging energy industries like offshore wind as states try to decarbonize.
At the heart of the transmission fight is what will run underneath Morro Bay and surrounding waters — companies are eyeing power lines buried in the seafloor to connect wind projects to the California grid. NOAA released a draft management plan for the sanctuary last year that would carve out a corridor on the north side for power lines to reach the retired Morro Bay Power Plant.
But that would mean cutting roughly 2,000 square miles from the original protected area, including Morro Bay and Morro Rock, a towering stone island in the bay that has cultural significance for the Chumash, who date their presence in the region back at least 10,000 years. If approved this year, the Chumash sanctuary would be the first ever nominated by Native Americans. The Biden administration has promised to improve the U.S. government’s relationship to Indian nations.
But offshore wind developers are pushing back on the NOAA plan, despite the transmission carve-out. The proposal blocks unfettered access to a grid connection that’s long been assumed as the optimal point for offshore wind: the soon-to-retire Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant.
Diablo may be needed because offshore wind needs to connect to grid locations capable of taking in large amounts of power and flinging it into the larger electricity system, according to industry analysts. Transmission infrastructure at the existing Morro Bay power plant is not equipped for that, they say.
While NOAA said in its draft plan that wind developers could seek permits, renewing them every five years, to lay transmission through the sanctuary to reach Diablo, critics say it is an untested solution that does not provide enough certainty to secure financial investments for projects.
“It is critical that leaseholders can connect their projects,” said Erin Lieberman, executive vice president for environmental compliance and strategy at Invenergy, which wants to develop the Even Keel Wind project in federal waters off the coast of Morro Bay.
“Limiting this transmission access would threaten the project’s viability,” Lieberman said in an email, echoing other offshore wind developers in California who have appealed to NOAA for a Diablo connection.
Biden vs. Trump
The Chumash sanctuary conflict comes at a challenging moment for President Joe Biden’s offshore wind ambitions.
Inflationary costs in the wake of the global pandemic have made offshore wind farms more expensive to build and slowed down deployment in the U.S. A scarcity of builders and manufacturers is also driving up costs, as the U.S. supply chain for offshore wind is virtually nonexistent. The industry is no longer expected to meet the Biden administration’s goal of reaching 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by the end of the decade.
The administration held its first Pacific wind sale in late 2022 and is aiming to hold an auction off the coast of Oregon this year. The auctions are part of a flurry of activity at the Interior Department to entrench the nation’s offshore wind industry in new markets like California and the Gulf of Mexico, ahead of a presidential election that could upend the industry’s outlook.
If Biden loses the November presidential race, Republican nominee Donald Trump is expected to slow the pace of offshore wind permitting and leasing.
“We have seen former President Trump speak out against wind explicitly. He’s not just yelling about renewables,” said Timothy Fox, an analyst with ClearView Energy Partners, who said the election will likely pressure the White House to decide on the Morro Bay issue before November.
“The [Biden] administration wants to provide some clarity. They want to try to finalize this soon,” he said of NOAA’s Chumash plan.
NOAA is reviewing more than 100,000 comments submitted about the proposed sanctuary. The agency’s management plan includes bringing in tribal advisers, part of the Biden administration’s commitment to tribes.
“As the first Indigenous-led sanctuary nomination, proposing the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary reflects the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to respecting indigenous knowledge and promoting co-stewardship while advancing our historic climate and conservation goals,” said Alyssa Roberts, spokesperson for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, in a statement. “Input from local area Tribes, Indigenous communities, and clean energy stakeholders has been crucial and will continue to inform the designation process that NOAA is leading.”
Why does Diablo matter?
Experts say industry concerns over transmission access to Diablo are legitimate. While a single offshore wind project might be able to find a cost-effective route to connect to the grid at the Morro Bay Power Plant, it’s far less likely that the retired plant — a relic of the U.S. power boom of the 1950s — could support three or more wind farms.
The substation can’t accept the amount of power offshore wind is promising unless there are upgrades, said Ranjit Deshmukh, an assistant professor in environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. The plant has a 230-kilovolt substation to transfer power into the electric grid, while a substation at Diablo has more than double that capacity.
“The interconnection depends on how much offshore wind ends up being developed at Morro Bay,” Deshmukh explained in an email. “If all 3,100 [megawatt] capacity of planned wind farms … is built, then the 230 kV substation at Morro Bay will not be sufficient.”
Building a new substation twice the size at Morro Bay has been assessed by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Independent System Operator as they plan for offshore wind. But state and local officials have also weighed other uses for the site, including an industry proposal to use it as a battery storage facility.
In contrast, the Diablo electrical plug-in likely has room for offshore wind power, and will have additional capacity if the nuclear plant is decommissioned as planned in 2030, Deshmukh said.
‘An additional threat’
Unlike New England states that helped drive the first offshore wind development in the U.S. via subsidies, California doesn’t offer direct support to help companies cover their costs. A new law, signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) last year, attempts to change that. It would direct the California Department of Water Resources to buy “clean” energy from large, difficult-to-develop projects and sell the electricity to state utilities.
Even so, questions are emerging about whether California lawmakers have oversold the scale of potential offshore wind growth.
Two years ago, the California Energy Commission set a goal of reaching up to 5 GW of offshore wind by 2030, with that power increasing incrementally until 25 million homes in the state are powered by offshore wind by 2045. Backed by Newsom, the target is the most aggressive in the country.
Last month, the CPUC — which regulates power providers covering about three-quarters of the state — inked a plan with a less ambitious target: 4.5 GW of offshore wind installed by 2035.
A spokesperson for the utilities commission said the two figures shouldn’t be compared apples to apples, however. The energy commission has set a goal for offshore wind statewide, while the utility commission is setting targets for its area of authority to procure needed power supply.
“It is important to note that offshore wind is a new technology in California, and as such, there will be challenges in advancing it, especially for the first/early projects,” said Terrie Prosper, director of strategic communications for the utilities commission.
One of those challenges is that offshore wind farms are more expensive to build in California than on the East Coast
California waters are too deep to support fixed-bottom turbine platforms. So farms will require the emerging technology of floating platforms, moored to the seafloor with cables. That approach is advancing globally, but it hasn’t yet become widespread and still has higher costs than traditional offshore arrays.
California’s lack of an offshore wind subsidy, coupled with its high development costs, creates uncertainty for companies that is being exacerbated by Morro Bay’s situation, according to analysts.
“I wouldn’t characterize the sanctuary as the biggest threat [to California offshore wind development]. But it’s an additional threat,” he said. “This is one of several hurdles that can make project developers hesitant from making their final investment decision until there is clarity.”
A tribal push
The Northern Chumash band, an Indigenous people who are recognized by California — but not the federal government — as a tribe, have fought for the sanctuary for more than a decade.
The band argued in its sanctuary proposal that the waters off Morro Bay are ecologically important, because the coastline’s unique geography supports abundant marine life.
As the state’s central coast curves inward, it creates a gyre where the cold northern current mixes with the warmer southern current. That helps churn colder, deeper and nutrient rich waters near the ocean floor to the surface, a process that supports the marine food chain.
“The biological richness of it is intertwined with the sacred sites,” said PJ Webb, a legal adviser to the Northern Chumash Tribal Council who wrote the tribe’s proposal to NOAA. Webb previously worked as an adviser to the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary superintendent for two decades.
She noted that the Northern Chumash support clean energy, but have concerns about environmental impacts of transmission cables in Morro Bay, where threatened southern sea otters live.
Sage Walker said NOAA’s proposal to reduce the size of the sanctuary for transmission “was kind of a blow to the priorities of the administration,” considering the president’s stated commitment to tribes.
For Kenneth Kahn, council chair of the federally recognized Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, there is a compromise to be made with wind developers by creating a clear permitting option through the sanctuary waters.
Although the Santa Ynez Band was not the original nominator for the marine sanctuary, it will be directly involved in its management if it is finalized, as it is the only federally recognized Chumash tribe.
Kahn said he understands the wind industry’s position that transmission permitting doesn’t seem clear in the NOAA documents, but doesn’t see that as an impossible hurdle.
“When there’s no absolute policy around it, they don’t see an avenue to get it done,” he said. “The other perspective is: Any developer is gonna take the path of least resistance.”
What is NOAA likely to do?
NOAA’s proposal is explicit that subsea electric transmission cables could be approved in a national marine sanctuary.
“NOAA’s experience at other sites indicates large cable construction projects may be successfully proposed and built within national marine sanctuaries,” the agency wrote in its draft environmental analysis.
There is precedence for the idea. For example, in the Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary off the coast of Washington state, fiber-optic submarine cables were installed under the seafloor in 1999 and 2000.
Along with saying that permits for transmission would likely need regular renewals, the agency suggested a unique framework for managing the sanctuary, including using several advisory boards that give the Santa Ynez, and potentially other tribal nations and bands, a seat at the management table.
But the absence of a detailed permitting process for offshore wind transmission was considered a sizable omission by developers and other proponents.
Fox, with ClearView, said NOAA appears willing to advance a transmission permitting process, but he noted that as a federal agency, NOAA isn’t ultimately trying to help the industry.
“There could be some flexibility. But NOAA’s primary responsibility is environmental protectionism,” he said. “It is not to facilitate offshore wind.”
Advocates who want both offshore wind and the sanctuary off the coast of Morro Bay are urging the agency to take a middle-of-the-road approach.
California Rep. Salud Carbajal, a Democrat who represents Morro Bay’s congressional district, has been advising the agency to use a sanctuary boundary without the transmission carve-out, while also making certain there’s a permitting process for power lines.
An aide in Carbajal’s office, who was granted anonymity due to the sensitivity of the negotiations, said the congressman has advocated this approach with both NOAA and the White House.
Another option that’s been proposed to NOAA is what developers have called a “phased approach.”
With that concept, transmission corridors could remain outside the sanctuary boundary until cables have been sited or even installed. When that occurs, sanctuary protections would become effective in waters containing the power lines.
We “are open to discussions about a future expansion of the Sanctuary once offshore wind transmission access has been assured,” said Lieberman, with Even Keel.
Webb, the Northern Chumash adviser, said NOAA is likely torn over what to do. She thinks when NOAA carved out a proposed corridor to reach the Morro Bay power plant, it signaled its preference to keep some energy infrastructure outside of the sanctuary boundaries.
“There may be a desire not to set a precedent of having such disruptive stuff within the sanctuary,” she said.
California
New police video shows deadly standoff after deputy killed in California shooting | Fox News Video
Bodycam and drone video show the deadly SWAT standoff after Tulare County Deputy Randy Hoppert was killed serving an eviction notice on April 9, 2026. Credit: Kern County Sheriff’s Office
Bodycam and drone video show the deadly SWAT standoff after Tulare County Deputy Randy Hoppert was killed serving an eviction notice. Credit: Kern County Sheriff Office
California
California business owners ‘working for peanuts’ as costs, record gas prices and regulations devour profits
As labor and energy costs rise in California, small business owners say minimum wage laws and gas taxes in the Golden State are crippling their operations.
For 25 years, Mike Georgopoulos — better known to his friends as “Mikey G” — has built a legacy in San Diego, opening 30 restaurants in the last decade alone. But today, the veteran entrepreneur says the California dream is being choked by a math problem that no longer adds up.
With raw material costs rising sharply and energy bills up 24%, Georgopoulos said a staggering 2% cost is being ripped straight from the bottom line before a single burger hits the grill. In an industry where a 5% profit margin is considered a win, Georgopoulos warns that owners are now “trapped” in a “vicious cycle” of record gas prices and what he calls predatory regulations that have them “working for peanuts” just to keep the doors open.
“We built over 30 restaurants in the last 10 years. The barrier to entry is insane. It takes years to get permits and entitlement. It costs a lot of money, and there’s a lot of money at risk before you even have your award of the appropriate permits. So you may have to risk some money and then not get what you need,” he told Fox News Digital from his newly-opened brewery.
“They’re working for peanuts because they just can’t make it, but they’re trapped. They can’t get out. They own a business, they’re in a lease, they have no other place to go. So they’re just in a vicious cycle, and there’s just nothing coming out on the other end in terms of profit,” Georgopoulos added. “It’s sticker shock, it really is.”
CALIFORNIA’S ‘ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP’ WITH ONE-PARTY RULE IS CRUSHING FAMILIES, ‘COMING FOR YOU,’ CRITICS WARN
Rising energy and electricity costs began to escalate for California small businesses in 2022 after the pandemic, according to the restaurateur, but bills saw what he described as double-digit hikes since the conflict involving Iran intensified just over a month ago. At this point, Georgopoulos is “constantly” changing pricing on his menus, but admits prices should have increased by 100% over the past two years.
California small business owners and their employees describe the pressure from rising supply, wage and energy costs. (Getty Images)
“It’s pretty significant. It’s a lot and it’s going up. It’s not coming down,” he said. “But there is an upper limit to what people are willing to pay before they decide to cook it at home. So we have to cut in other areas and keep our menu prices competitive… In California, our labor is as high as anywhere in the nation, and we don’t have a tip credit, which is disappointing, to say the least. So we have to reduce labor costs by reducing staffing, so cutting shifts, making shifts shorter, which then takes away from the guest experience… and that’s the struggle we go through month by month.”
“It’s clear cash flows are clearly impacted by what we are experiencing today. Not only gas prices, but just turbulence in what the future has to hold for small businesses. But it’s clearly from anywhere from accounts receivable to accounts payables, we’re seeing some slowness in those factors. That basically tells us the pressure is there, and it’s mounting,” Cardiff Co-CEO Mo Tehrani, whose lending company has funded more than $12 billion in small business loans and even helped Georgopoulos, also told Fox News Digital.
“Especially in California, we have probably the highest gas prices anywhere in the country, and it’s directly impacting small margins that the transportation sector operates under. So it’s an immediate impact,” the CEO continued. “The pump obviously impacts how people hire, how people route their deliveries, surcharges, pricing their products, all those things are impacted.”
California farmers Craig Underwood and Larry Thorne speak with Fox News Digital about how they’re confronting a harsh new reality as soaring fuel, energy and labor costs threaten to upend generations of farming.
A spokesperson for the California Energy Commission told Fox News Digital that “California is committed to energy affordability for all residents,” adding that affordability is a key factor in advancing a fully clean energy future. The spokesperson also said energy prices in the state are largely outside the commission’s control.
Besides the pain at the pump, recent data from WalletHub suggests the pressure California business owners have long felt. An analysis of more than 1,300 small cities found that California is home to the most difficult environments for entrepreneurs, with the final 10-plus rankings exclusively occupied by California municipalities, including Pacifica, Danville, Castro Valley and Saratoga.
According to the Public Policy Institute of California, the state’s private-sector employer base has grown 52% since 2005, more than double the 21% increase in public-sector entities.
“It’s really costly to move an organization and folks and their customer base out of the state. So for those that are fortunate enough, we’re seeing that happen. But the majority of Main Street doesn’t have that opportunity to do that,” Tehrani explained. “And we’re fortunate in California, it’s one of the largest economies in the world. We have a lot of entrepreneurs here that want to live here, and they want to build a business around them. Some of those are serial entrepreneurs that are building new businesses that may not necessarily abide by the historical rules of having a lease here, having employees live here.”
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“We are losing staff in part because it’s less expensive for them to work in more rural areas out by where they may live. We’re also losing staff because we’re experiencing a homeless crisis that you hear about constantly and the vagrancy that comes with that in downtown San Diego,” Georgopoulos said. “You’re just paying more taxes, making less tips, and getting less hours… We have 700 employees that we have to think about every single day… We want them to come into work and make money, and we don’t want their costs to be so high.”
San Diego’s Little Italy neighborhood was full of life, with many small businesses open and patrons around. | Getty Images
Another massive issue: California’s legal and regulatory landscape — business owners are being targeted by what Georgopoulos described as “shakedown” lawsuits related to wage and hour laws, forced to settle or spend six-figure sums on what he called frivolous claims; and law-abiding owners face aggressive health inspections and permit requirements, while illegal, unpermitted vendors operate with “impunity” in the same neighborhoods.
“The laws are very favorable in California to allow these law firms to do this. So what that does is there’s a compound effect, right? A given restaurant could spend $100,000 in one year dealing with lawsuits… These lawsuits are killing us,” Georgopoulos noted. “And then the ongoing regulations are just… very taxing… There’s a hundred illegal hot dog vendors operating in downtown San Diego. They’re not supposed to be there. They don’t have permits. They certainly don’t even have [outdoor bug] screens. They don’t even have hand washing stations. They cross those individuals to come shut me down while those guys are operating.”
“Traditionally, access to capital has been difficult, takes weeks to months of planning and going through an application process,” Tehrani highlighted on regulations. “What we’ve tried to do is make that process as simple and flexible as possible to allow a business owner to be able to have an opportunity and be able fulfill that [operational funding] within hours or within short few days.”
As Californians continue to grapple with Golden State affordability issues, Los Angeles County community leaders advocate for political change to rescue locals struggling under financial strain.
While the data suggests a bleak future for California’s mainstream businesses, Tehrani believes the survival of the U.S. economy hinges on the very “problem solvers” currently being squeezed in the Golden State. For him, the current crisis is a forced return to the innovative roots of entrepreneurship.
“Small businesses are resilient. They are by far the most resilient and probably the reason why the U.S. economy is as strong as it is; It relies on small businesses to be successful. In no place on Earth does this small business environment exist other than in the United States,” Tehrani said. “Having said that, these challenges require business owners to go back to their roots. They’re innovators. They’re builders. They’re adaptable, and they’re problem solvers. And that’s really what’s required to get through these challenges. And so there are $8 per gallon gas prices, [but] I bet on small businesses innovating their way out of those issues.”
For Georgopoulos, the ultimate advice to struggling peers — “move to Texas” — is a joke that carries a heavy weight of truth. Yet, he is choosing to double down on his home state, even if it means fighting an uphill battle against a system he says is making him “love it less.”
DeLuca’s Italian Restaurant owner Robert DeLuca discusses running a small business in New York, citing policy shifts, rising labor costs and the impact of tax cuts on ‘FOX Business In Depth.’
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“We did not get into this business to get rich. It’s not a get-rich business. You’re in the restaurant and the hospitality industry because you love what you do. You love hosting people. You love having people at your place of business and showing them a good time. We’re starting to love it less. And eventually, you’re gonna have all the cookie-cutter chain restaurants if we’re not careful,” Georgopoulos warned.
But even with the “sticker shock” of his own home solar bill and the exodus of staff, he isn’t walking away yet.
“California has given me everything. I’ve worked for it, it didn’t come easy. So I still believe we can make it work. We just bought a new local company called Ballast Point that we’re remaining here in San Diego. It would be much cheaper for me to move it out of state. We would get significant profits from that. But we’re going to stay and we’re gonna fight it out and we’ll keep Ballast Point here, and we are going to make it work. We’re going to speak out when we can and try to get some relief where we can. And hopefully, someday, soon, things will change in our favor.”
READ MORE FROM FOX BUSINESS
California
Wildfire Crews Race to Keep Fierce California Blaze From Former Nuclear Reactor Site – Inside Climate News
WEST HILLS, Calif.—Her gray SUV packed and a fire-proof bag ready, Melissa Bumstead didn’t waste any time Monday as plumes of smoke engulfed the sky near her suburb.
Most neighbors in West Hills—about 30 miles west of downtown Los Angeles—stayed put after only a voluntary “evacuation warning” was issued for the area. But not her.
As the ever-growing Sandy Fire swept across Southern California, the 45-year-old mother could only think of one thing.
Bumstead lives less than four miles from the site of possibly the worst nuclear meltdown in U.S. history besides the Three Mile Island accident.
The Santa Susana Field Laboratory, or SSFL, is known locally as a problem site—with a pockmarked history amid a spotty cleanup. A blaze hitting the former nuclear reactor and rocket testing site, Bumstead is sure, would be a cataclysm.
“This is what it looks like to evacuate when you’re scared,” she said Monday, “because if the smoke were to be radioactive or toxic, you don’t want to breathe it.”
Bumstead returned home Tuesday but remains on alert as the Sandy Fire rages on.
The fireline was about a quarter-mile from the site on Tuesday morning. Boeing—which has owned SSFL since 1996—said it has evacuated all personnel from the site who are not involved with fire control.
“We are actively monitoring the Sandy Fire near the Santa Susana site and are in close coordination with local authorities and emergency responders,” a Boeing spokesman told Inside Climate News in an email.
“This is an ongoing situation, and as it evolves, we will continue to monitor fire conditions,” he said, deferring to the state for other questions.
Radiation exposure has short-term as well as long-term impacts, including greater risk of developing cancer and possible harms to cardiovascular and immune systems.
The Sandy Fire, which surpassed 1,300 acres on Tuesday with only 5 percent containment based on early response efforts, burned near Simi Valley.
More than 33,000 people in the valley and other communities were placed under evacuation orders. At least one home has been destroyed as of Tuesday afternoon. The cause remains under investigation.
Fire crews made strides in cutting firelines since Monday morning, when the incident first began as a brush fire. At about 4 p.m. Pacific on Tuesday, prevailing winds shifted direction from the west, fueled by out-of-season Santa Ana winds.
The shifting conditions placed the Santa Susana Field Lab in the immediate path of the Sandy Fire—raising alarms from nearby families like Bumstead’s.
Fire crews raced to the scene.
“That is an area that we’re trying to keep the fire out of and we’re putting multiple dozer lines in place, as well as our hand crews are working to increase containment and build contingency lines,” Andy VanSciver, a firefighter and spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department, told Inside Climate News on Tuesday.
VanSciver said first responders were at the former nuclear site “right away.”
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control did not immediately provide comment Tuesday afternoon.
The U.S. Department of Energy said in a statement online that it “is closely monitoring the Sandy Fire located adjacent to the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.” So far, “there is no impact to the site,” the agency wrote.
VanSciver said he was confident the community would be protected as the fire department arrived at the site quickly, but noted that updates will be provided online.
Not the First Wildfire Threat
Peter Hemken paused Monday night on his walk up the steep Sequoia Avenue in Simi Valley, overlooking a ridge covered in gray smoke.
What began as a small cluster of fires from his sight line became a full out strip.
“Oh my God, that’s really flaring up,” the 73-year-old remarked, pulling out his phone for a photo.
Every hour or so since Monday morning, Hemken joined others in walking up the hill to see the Sandy Fire’s progress.
“I used to work in engineering up at Rocketdyne,” he said of the nearby facility that developed space shuttles.
A Simi Valley resident for over two decades, Hemken was well aware of the Santa Susana Field Lab. Residents of his Simi Valley neighborhood have not had to evacuate because of a wildfire in recent years, but they are always ready to. The lab has something to do with it.
“I would hate to see a fire get up there,” he said, pointing toward the SSFL site. “There’s still a lot of nasty chemicals up there.”
The SSFL cleanup plan is still being finalized, having been expanded, and then stalled, several times in the last 20 years. Through interim measures, approximately 6,000 cubic yards of the most contaminated soil was removed in 2024, the year excavation began and the only one with data available. But that cleanup was limited to a single area. The scope of the full remediation is still being decided by the state, federal authorities and Boeing.
The Sandy Fire on Tuesday encroached uncomfortably close to the former nuclear site’s north buffer zone, according to residents and a perimeter map of the area’s burn zone.
Melissa Bumstead said health concerns surrounding the site are personal to her. Her daughter, Grace, has had two bouts of a rare form of leukemia, which the family believes is linked to the radiation from SSFL.
She began campaigning 12 years ago for a complete remediation of the former nuclear test site soon after her daughter’s cancer diagnosis.
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“It was considered an urban legend,” Bumstead said of cancer links to the site. “It wasn’t until [my daughter] got diagnosed that we started doing research and found out … there were a bunch of studies by the University of California, Los Angeles, and epidemiological federally funded studies.”
As it turned out, “the research was there. It just wasn’t being communicated,” she said.
One of the reports that pushed Bumstead toward founding her advocacy organization, Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab, was a 2007 study led by Hal Morgenstern for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Morgenstern, an epidemiologist at the University of Michigan, found residents within two miles of SSFL face a 60 percent higher rate of certain cancer diagnoses than those living five miles away.
That study—though not enough to label SSFL as the cause of the higher cancer rate—shed light on the strong correlation between proximity to the site and cancers triggered by radiation exposure.
That’s why residents worry whenever air quality alerts start to ping on their phones and a wildfire approaches.
It happened in 2018.
The Woolsey Fire burned through 80 percent of the SSFL site, though most of the affected area was in the southern buffer zone and in the rocket testing area, not the nuclear testing area.
Initially, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control assured the community that there was no risk of radioactive contamination, an assertion that the agency seemingly confirmed in the 2020 Final Report on the Woolsey Fire.
However, an independent study looking at 360 samples from the area surrounding the burn zone found that 3 percent contained radioactive particles that could be traced to the SSFL. The study, conducted by a doctoral student at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and the co-founders of nuclear watchdog group Fairewinds Energy Education, analyzed more than 10 times the samples taken by the state for monitoring.
Boeing had no immediate comment when the study was released in 2021, issuing a statement to NBC4 in Los Angeles that said: “Cleanup at Santa Susana will continue to follow California law… The transformation of Boeing’s land at Santa Susana from a field laboratory to open space is well underway.”
In 2023, Boeing released the results of a study by Risk Assessment Corporation (RAC) that it funded. “Based on the soil sampling, we found no evidence of SSFL impact in off-site soils as a result of the Woolsey fire,” the study says. “Moreover, we found no radionuclide impact on the off-site soils we sampled from past operations of the SSFL”
Parents Against the Santa Susana Field Laboratory responded on its website: “Boeing redid the Woolsey Fire study…collecting samples nine months after the fire. We collected our samples within a month. Our study was peer-reviewed by independent scientists. Boeing’s scientists were paid by Boeing and their findings were NOT peer-reviewed.”
Bumstead received training and volunteered to collect samples for the independent study, along with the co-director of Parents Against SSFL, Jeni Knack.
Bumstead was glad to be able to be a part of that research and hopes their findings of scattered radioactive material up to nine miles away from the lab will add pressure for better monitoring this time.
“We have such a deeply ingrained belief that if it wasn’t safe, the government wouldn’t let us live here,” she said of local residents. After her experience with the Woolsey fire, she said, she knows that is not always the case.
Although the Sandy Fire has not reached the grounds of the SSFL as of now, it has burned “concerningly” close to the site of the 1959 sodium reactor meltdown, according to one former firefighter with CAL FIRE who asked that his name not be used.
He recommended residents seal off living areas and create positive pressure in their homes by turning on fans and using air filters. The radiation is contained in dust and ash particles, he said, so the sooner you wipe everything down and wash them away, the lower your risks of exposure.
People in Simi Valley said they are taking such measures but thinking of the long term, too. As wildfires grow fiercer due to man-made climate change, infringing on more homes and more people, Bumstead fears what ferocious winds and massive blazes could do.
“There’s a twisted joke that we have here that the Santa Susana Field Lab will be cleaned over time, because all of it will blow off into the surrounding communities,” said Bumstead. “The surrounding communities will be contaminated, but the site itself will be clean.”
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Thank you,
Steven Rodas
Reporter, California
Steven Rodas is an environmental and climate reporter for Inside Climate News based in Southern California. He previously reported on the environment in New Jersey, covering energy, pollution, wildlife and development. Steven’s work has appeared in several publications including NJ.com/The Star Ledger, hMAG, The Jersey Journal and The Hudson Reporter. He worked as a copywriter at Google. Steven has a master’s degree from Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School Of Public Communications. He is fluent in English and Spanish (and welcomes your tips).
Nina Dietz
Contributor
Nina Dietz is a freelance journalist covering climate change, the environment, and both human and planetary health. Her work has appeared in New Lines Magazine, City Limits, and Science Friday among others.
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