Norm Riley, with the California Department of Toxic Substances Control was removed as Project Manager of the Rocketydyne SSFL cleanup on August 19, according to an online story in the Ventura County Star of the same date. The announcement was made by the acting Director of the DTSC, Maziar Movassaghi, who also announced that an Assistant Director of the DTSC, Rick Brausch has been appointed to replace Norm Riley.
I receive emails on a Rocketdyne thread and I have noticed an outpouring of support for Norm Riley, including activists Christina Walsh, William Bowling, and Mary Wiesbrock.
To quote an 8-20 email from Mary Wiesbrock to the acting Director of the DTSC: “Please keep Norm Riley as project manager of SSFL/DTSC. He alone has the most experience, history, expertise, public support and ethical values to continue this process!” Other emails I read were concerned that the replacement of the project manager comes at a crucial time.  Although I am not directly involved with SSFL public meetings, I do know that the Rocketdyne SSFL cleanup is very complex, with a lot of players. How is a new project manager going to get up to speed on this?
There is some good news in the Star article as well, and that is the news that a draft agreement has been negotiated between the state, NASA and the U.S. Dept. of Energy.
We are very upset by the recent decisions and believe the strong leadership in Norm Riley is essential to getting progress at the site. The last two years speak for themselves as to the progress under his leadership with his unique ability to move things forward despite our very difficult and diverse community with crossing opinions and extreme political pressure. We certainly didn’t agree on everything, but we knew we could trust him, and we knew he would be fair and get this right… and that’s been sorely missing for so long. With Brausch as a political appointee, it would seem that we will have yet another project head in a years time. Can we afford such turmoil at such a crucial time in the process?
This is a most complex and difficult clean-up project with controversial political issues at hand. Can we afford NOT to have the best of the best? How will anyone else ever step forward to fill his shoes, when having the courage to step up to the challenge is a certain career-killer?
We will be having an impromptu meeting at ACME on Tuesday night to discuss these important issues. Pizza and discussion at ACME 6pm Tuesday, 23350 Lake Manor Drive, Chatsworth, 91311. acmela.org and cleanuprocketdyne.org