As State Nears Decision on Boeing Cleanup, Simi Valley Families Fear Most Pollution Will Stay
California is about to decide how Boeing must clean up an old rocket and nuclear test site above Simi Valley. Families who blame the site for their children's cancers say the plan would leave most of the pollution in the ground, and they want City Hall to push harder. So far, the issue appears to have barely come up in the races for mayor and City Council.
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SIMI VALLEY, Calif. — The rocket engines on the ridge above this city of about 126,000 people went quiet in 2006. The fight over what they left behind has not.
By the end of the year, California's Department of Toxic Substances Control is expected to make its final decision on how Boeing must clean the soil on the company's part of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. Engines for moon missions and Cold War missiles were tested on the 2,850-acre site, and a nuclear reactor there partly melted down in 1959.
The decision comes at a tense time for the site's neighbors. In January, parents, doctors and environmental groups lost a lawsuit that tried to undo the 2022 deal behind the cleanup plan. This fall, Boeing plans to tear down its last five buildings in the site's old nuclear area. And advocates say the cleanup now on the table would leave most of the pollution in the ground.
Rocket Tests, a Meltdown and What They Left Behind
From the late 1940s until 2006, Boeing's predecessor companies, NASA and the Energy Department, used the hilltop, about 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles, for tens of thousands of large rocket tests and for nuclear research. The testing left dioxins and heavy metals such as lead in the soil. During the 1959 accident, the reactor released radioactive gases for about two weeks. The public did not widely learn of it for about 20 years.
Boeing bought most of the property in 1996, when it acquired Rocketdyne. The company now owns about 80 percent of the site, including Area IV, the old nuclear area the Energy Department must clean up.
In 2017, Boeing placed a conservation easement on its land to keep it as open space forever. The company says that future use should guide how clean the land must be. In 2022, it told Reuters it was "misleading" to say the company was using the easement to limit the cleanup.
A Disputed Link to Cancer
Melissa Bumstead of West Hills started Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab after her daughter, Grace, was diagnosed with a rare leukemia at age 4.
The group points to a 2007 University of Michigan study done for a federal health agency. It compared adults living within two miles of the site with those living more than five miles away. Certain cancers, including thyroid cancer, were more than 60 percent more common in the closer group. The authors noted the study's limits.
In a separate case about two decades ago, Boeing paid $30 million to settle a lawsuit by 133 neighbors who blamed the lab for their illnesses. The company admitted no wrongdoing.
Boeing has said the site was not responsible for the childhood cancers that families have blamed on it. The company says more than 20,000 air samples show that air leaving the site is as clean as, or cleaner than, air in nearby towns. It also cites state and county testing that found no release of chemical or radioactive pollution after the 2018 Woolsey Fire, which started on the property.
From 'Background' to 'Resident With Garden'
The fight centers on one word: background. It means cleaning land to the condition it would be in if the industrial work had never happened.
A 2007 state law tried to require a strict cleanup of the whole site. Boeing sued, and federal courts struck the law down, ruling that it interfered with federal control over nuclear cleanup. Boeing said the site's cleanup "should not be treated differently from the cleanup of other sites in California."
In 2010, the state signed agreements requiring NASA and the Energy Department to clean their areas to background. Boeing never signed one, and a separate 2007 order covering its land set no specific cleanup level.
In 2022, the state reached a new deal with Boeing. Officials said it requires Boeing to clean chemical pollution to a standard that could be as strict as "resident with garden." That means the land would be safe enough for someone to grow food there. Radioactive pollution must be cleaned to background levels.
A state spokeswoman, Allison Wescott, told the Los Angeles Daily News at the time that "any assertion that DTSC has watered down the cleanup standard" was false. Boeing said the deal gave it "a clear, accelerated path forward."
Critics say the deal falls short. The plan regulators released in October 2025 would dig up about 80 acres of soil, roughly 350,000 cubic yards, and remove polluted vapor from about 31 more acres. Advocates say it would leave 90 percent or more of the pollution in place. Haakon Williams of the Committee to Bridge the Gap told the Simi Valley Acorn the plan was "the final nail in the coffin for the community's hope."
Twenty Years Later, No Final Cleanup
Twenty years after the last rocket test, final soil cleanup has not started anywhere on the site.
Boeing. After the final soil decision, Boeing needs state approval of a work plan before it can begin digging. A draft groundwater plan is also coming, after the state conditionally accepted Boeing's groundwater study in June.
Demolition. Boeing says state health officials found the five Area IV buildings clean enough for unrestricted use, and that it will get the required Ventura County permits before tearing them down. Opponents fear the debris could go to landfills that experts told NBC4 are not licensed for low-level radioactive waste.
NASA. In January, the state approved the first phase of NASA's groundwater cleanup. NASA's soil cleanup, which must reach background levels, is waiting on studies of replacement soil and of whether labs can measure pollution that low.
Energy Department. The department finished tearing down all 18 of its buildings in 2021, shipped the debris to a licensed facility outside California, and is now studying new soil cleanup options.
Water. Last December, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board proposed a $595,026 fine against Boeing for 39 alleged stormwater violations involving dioxin, lead and mercury. Russ Colby, a board official, called it "a necessary step to protect the waterways." A Boeing spokesman, Connor Greenwood, said the company was reviewing the complaint. The final outcome remains unclear.
A Courtroom Loss, but Options Remain
On Jan. 8, 2026, Judge Mark Borrell of Ventura County Superior Court rejected a lawsuit by Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab and two other groups. They argued that the 2022 deal needed a state environmental review first. Boeing's lawyers said the ruling showed the deal had not locked the state into any one cleanup plan.
"Kids will get sick from this," Ms. Bumstead told the Ojai Valley News.
The legal fight may not be over. In 2024, Simi Valley, Los Angeles and both counties signed an agreement extending the deadline for lawsuits over the cleanup's environmental review. The extra time applies to anyone, including residents.
City Hall Lacks Power, but Not a Voice
Has Simi Valley done enough? The city has no jurisdiction over the cleanup. The state oversees it, and the site sits outside city limits, about two miles away. Besides signing the 2024 deadline agreement, the city joined Los Angeles and both counties in an October 2025 letter raising concerns about Boeing's soil plan. In early 2022, then-Mayor Keith Mashburn described the council's work as an ongoing fight for a timely cleanup.
Advocates want more. In 2024, Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab urged Simi Valley and three other local governments to sue the state, calling them the last line of protection for nearby communities. There is no public record that the city has sued.
But even without jurisdiction, a strong voice from City Hall can have an impact. The council can pass resolutions, file comments, speak before state regulators and decide whether to go to court.
On Nov. 3, voters will choose a mayor and fill three council seats. Two mayoral candidates, Mayor Dee Dee Cavanaugh and Councilman Mike Judge, have served on the council for 10 and 16 years, respectively. Yet the site barely appears in the campaign.
The Simi Valley Acorn's reports on a September mayoral forum and on Ms. Cavanaugh's State of the City speech do not mention it. In public statements and forum coverage reviewed for this article, none of the City Council candidates have made the cleanup a central campaign issue. The council seated in December will have to respond to the state's first final cleanup decision for the site.
A Cleanup Measured in Decades
Boeing describes a future of hiking trails and wildlife cameras and says it "remains committed to completing the remaining cleanup work safely."
For families below the ridge, time matters more. By the state's own estimate, the soil cleanup will take about 15 years once it starts. A child born this year would be in high school before the cleanup ends.
The next few months will shape what that child inherits. The state's decision on Boeing's soil cleanup is due by year's end. On Nov. 3, Simi Valley picks the leaders who will decide how loudly the city speaks up. And the families who have spent years at public hearings, in courtrooms, and at candlelight vigils are still asking the question they started with: When the last truck finally leaves, how much of the pollution will still be in the ground?
The Simi Valley Ledger is an Official Publication of The Freedom Project © 2026
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