Conservation easements can preserve open space and vital wildlife habitat, but Boeing and other companies are using them on contaminated U.S. sites. Critics say the move is a perversion of conservation
After a 2018 wildfire on the property, scientists conducted a peer-reviewed study in 2021 that found radioactive ash at homes and on public land as far as nine miles away. Government and independent testing found contamination from Santa Susana at a neighboring children’s camp, nearby parks and residential neighborhoods. Stormwater carries chemicals off the site, exceeding government limits.
Boeing has held up the donation as an example of its commitment to environmental stewardship. In its 2018 annual environmental report, it quoted Stephen Thor Johnson, then president of its partner in the easement deal, the North American Land Trust . “The value of this open space,” Johnson said, “will be magnified over the coming decades and be remembered as a truly visionary act like the creation of Central Park or the conservation of the Presidio.
Boeing’s strategy angers Jen Connell, who lost her husband, Mike, in April to glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. He lived most of his 50 years within five miles of Santa Susana’s rocket-testing platforms and blamed radioactive ash from there for his disease. Radiation is known to increase the risk of glioblastoma.
GUARDED: A gatehouse greets visitors to the former Santa Susana Field Laboratory property in June in California’s Simi Hills. REUTERS/Mike BlakeThe idea of using a conservation easement to lobby for a lesser cleanup of polluted land rankles James Florio, the former U.S. representative who authored the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980. Congress passed the act, commonly known as the Superfund law, to require companies to clean up their toxic messes.
In each case Reuters uncovered, the easement contract notes the land’s history of contamination. For at least 25 sites, Reuters found documents that acknowledge the safety of the cleanup relies in part on the conservation easement’s promise to prevent development or other activities on the land. In at least six cases, state or federal regulators cited the easement’s land restrictions as a reason to let polluters conduct lesser cleanups that left some contamination behind.
“I wish there were endless resources to clean everything up,” said Jim Kuipers, a consulting engineer who has worked on mine cleanups for decades. “The EPA’s charge is to protect human health and the environment. It’s not to restore to background or entirely pure conditions.” Easements can “provide win-win-win opportunities for everyone and in many cases, also vulnerable species,” the EPA told Reuters in a statement. The deals also can help companies “repair their relationship with the community.”
Denman has played matchmaker, looking to connect companies with land trusts willing to take easements on contaminated land. One ally is Kat West, a former EPA lawyer turned consultant who has called herself the “EPA whisperer.” Asked about the agency’s promotion of conservation easements, the EPA described the deals as tools to ensure the future safety of a site, not influencers of its cleanup decisions. The EPA said it encourages adding easements after a cleanup method is chosen, not before.Conservation easements gained prominence after the U.S. Congress in 1980 created permanent tax breaks for them, to preserve “natural resources and cultural heritage.
Nancy McLaughlin, a law professor at the University of Utah whose work focuses on conservation easements The savings can easily total tens of millions of dollars, said engineer Kuipers, who has consulted on dozens of cleanups and testified in court cases as an expert on cost estimates. For the largest and most contaminated sites, like Boeing’s, he said, companies could save hundreds of millions of dollars.
In an emailed response to questions, Chevron said the conservation easement supports the cleanup goals for the property. It said that the land is too steep for home construction and that the company is doing everything the EPA requires in its cleanup.
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