Editor,
Site 300 is an 11-square-mile high-explosives testing range on Corral Hollow Road at the western edge of Tracy. This is where Lawrence Livermore Lab conducts explosions, some inside a special building and some on “firing tables” in the open-air.
The Environmental Protection Agency has placed Site 300 on its Superfund list of the most heavily contaminated sites in the country. Site 300 has uncontrolled waste plumes with toxic and radioactive pollutants leaking into multiple groundwater aquifers.
Further, the site’s open-air tests have released large volumes of hazardous material. These activities threaten our community. Our families in Tracy are downwind.
Following a nearly 2-year delay, Livermore Lab’s parent agency, the National Nuclear Security Administration, has informed a local environmental group to which I belong that a new Site-Wide Environmental Impact Statement (SWEIS) will be released to the public this coming month.
The release of the SWEIS in October will be followed by a public comment period and a public hearing. This is our opportunity to make sure that our families’ health becomes a priority – and that the pollution that has already escaped from activities at Site 300 gets cleaned up.
The Livermore Lab SWEIS will analyze planned operations at both Tracy’s Site 300 and the Main Site in Livermore over the next decade or more.
To help community members get ready for the public release of the SWEIS, Tri-Valley CAREs (Communities Against a Radioactive Environment) will host a virtual town hall on Thursday, September 29 at 7:30 p.m.
The link will be available at www.trivalleycares.org and all interested members of the public are welcome. Tri-Valley CAREs bilingual outreach expert will provide translation and answer questions in Spanish.
This is the time for community involvement. I hope you will join me.
Gail Rieger,
Tracy
