They have called for the job of Mendocino County's District Attorney, unleashed a litany of complaints against one of Ukiah's largest employers and told a handful of public officials they should be canned for incompetence.
Talk about causing a stink!
They are SNAG, the Sanel Neighborhood Awareness Group, a group of 20 or so residents of Russian River Estates, nestled in the foothills above Highway 101, south of Ukiah.
For the past five months, SNAG's target has been their neighbor, Lockheed-Martin's Retech, a once locally-owned machine shop that has cornered the world market on manufacturing million-dollar furnaces that melt down nuclear and military waste and other nasty stuff.
Bottom line, the residents don't want to live next to a plant that tests their equipment by burning toxic and hazardous materials in their backyard.
"Retech is simply a time bomb waiting to go off and nobody in county government is paying attention," said Renee Gannon, a SNAG spokesperson. "We are afraid for our families."
SNAG meets weekly in the downtown Ukiah office of the Mendocino Environmental Center. With the precision of a university research team, the group has documented more than 60 building and environmental health violations at Retech.
On December 3, SNAG went before the Board of Supervisors to demand Retech's full legal compliance and to spotlight county officials whom they accuse of turning a blind eye to Retech's operation at best and of corruption at worst.
Ten days later, the Board devoted six hours to a rebuttal by Retech/Lockheed.Martin officials and various county heads who assured the supes nothing was going on at Retech to be afraid of.
"We have done no testing with radioactive material in Ukiah," Retech's senior technical advisor Dick Eschenbach told the supervisors.
But for the neighbors, the goings on at Retech have been hard to ignore. Many of them moved to the Russian River subdivision 20 or more years ago to live in a rural setting and raise their families.
Back then, the fact that Retech was smack in the middle of their neighborhood was of little concern. The plant employed up to 150 locals in high-tech machine work. It was owned by the charismatic Max Schlienger, a tall, elegant entrepreneur and inventor who started Retech in his San Rafael garage and was named by President Clinton as the nations's "Small Business Person of the year" for 1995.
For two decades Schlienger soothed both county officials and neighbors with his laid-back paternalistic style of running the company, a place whose only sin seemed to be that it was painted day-glow orange.
Schlienger sold the company two years ago to a division of the Lockheed-Martin conglomerate called M4 Environmental. At the time, Lockheed Martin - still stinging from aerospace downsizing in the '80's - was fast becoming a world giant in the lucrative nuclear waste disposal industry.
With the 1995 purchase of Retech and its patented technique of melting toxic materials into a solidified slag of glass considered leach proof, there is no question Lockheed will be booked for years to come cleaning up hazardous waste sites around the world.
Right around the time Lockheed-Martin bought Retech, neighbors became alarmed at the increasing plant expansion. A 65-foot tall furnace assembly building was built with special permission from the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors. Flood lights went up, sometimes work went on 24 hours a day and 24-wheel semi trucks were turning off the highway and onto the only road the neighbors use to get in and out of the subdivision.
"Retech used to be this small, dimly-lit, unobtrusive, locally-owned company," said SNAG's Renee Gannon. "Now it has grown like a cancer; they have 24-hour shifts sometimes and it's noisy at night. One of the reasons I bought my house here was to raise my two children in a healthy environment. If they are processing hazardous materials at Retech, I have a hard time thinking that's okay."
And there were rumors - later verified - of Retech melting down cocaine, heroin, marijuana and toxic sludge designed to simulate radioactive material from some of the nation's most polluted nuclear waste dumps such as the Department of Energy's Hanford Facility in Washington and Oakridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
What was Retech trucking in? What was going on down there, the neighbors wondered?
The final blow for the residents came on April 27, 1996, when Edwin Hensley, a 32 year-old Ukiah man, died after a flash fire on the Retech assembly line burned 70 percent of his body. Hensley, who wasn't issued protective clothing at the time of the accident, was part of a round-the-clock crew mixing vats of highly explosive magnetic powder that can ignite on contact with oxygen and water and spontaneously combust from static electricity.
CAL-OSHA, the state arm that regulates worker safety laws, fined Retech and Magnaquench International Inc. - the Indiana-based company that contracted with Retech to produce the powder - $32,475 each for safety violations surrounding Hensley's death. Both companies have appealed the fines and blame each other for the accident. State authorities are now investigating whether the companies were criminally negligent and Hensley's family has a wrongful death suit pending.
"After the explosion that killed Ed Hensley and they started clearing out another area for expansion, I couldn't sleep at night", said Laura Franklin, a Retech neighbor active with SNAG. "I told my husband I can't bury my head in the sand on this. That's when we started getting on the phone and getting organized."
But Retech officials shudder at the idea that residents think something sinister is going on at the plant. They freely acknowledge they melt down toxic waste. But the process poses no health risk to neighbors or workers, insists James E,. Crouch, vice-president and general manager of the Retech Division, M4 Environmental Management, Inc.
"The accident caused people to wonder what we are doing here," Crouch said. "But we are not doing anything different here now that we did 25 years ago. It's not been a conscious decision to keep people in the dark.
"There has been a lot of chatter about did we have permits for this, permits for that," Crouch said. " But common sense says you shouldn't do things the law won't allow you to do." We should have been more forthcoming, but once we clearly communicate what we do, reasonable people will conclude there is no risk involved."
Crouch insists everything they've done is legal and that they are scrambling to get the plant's building violations up to code. The company's worst mistake, he said, was not communicating with the neighbors in the first place about the drugs or hazardous materials Retech tests in their furnaces.
"The DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency) heard about our innovative waste treatment technology and they contacted all the local enforcement agencies about the disposing of drugs," Crouch said.
On June 1, 1995, Retech burned 25 kilograms each of marijuana, heroin and cocaine, according to a letter from Rob Haun, Retech's research and development manager, addressed to the state Department of Toxic Substance Control. "At the time, it wasn't anything we wanted to publicize in the Ukiah Daily Journal," Crouch said, "But if they came to me today, I'd probably not agree to do any kind of testing unless the DEA agreed to allow us to disseminate certain kinds of information."
While the residents feel duped by Retech, company officials are reeling from what they describe as a witch hunt to drive the business out of town. The way company heads see it, if only they had told the community what they were doing earlier, the neighbors would not only tolerate what Retech does for a living, they might even celebrate it.
Maybe not. Many neighbors say their trust in Retech is shattered and they won't ever feel completely safe living in the company's shadow.
"SNAG wants the company to comply with the law," said Renee Gannon, whose house sits closest to Retech. "But do I want the processing of hazardous materials in my back yard? The answer is no."
I Felt A Moral Imperative:
The Women Activists Who Put the Heat on Retech
Four Ukiah women who live next to Retech and are active in SNAG, the Sanel Neighborhood Awareness Group, talked to me about why they decided to fight the company. What motivated these already maxed-out mothers and full-time workers to spend hundreds of hours in meetings, on the phone, researching and documenting evidence against Retech? Like they have the extra time!
Renee Gannon: theatrical costume designer, 44, married, two boys, ages 7 and 10.
Anny Reidenbach: homemaker, registered nurse, raises rabbits, 47, married, daughter, 17 and son, 12.
Dot Brovarney: writer/consultant, 41, married.
Laura Franklin: businesswoman, 48, married, two sons, 11 and 13.
Have you had any previous activist experience?
Dot: Very little. I am probably one of the few who has had any. In the early 80's I was part of a group that formed to save the north part of a San Diego canyon from development.
Renee: I think I could say none.
Anny: Zilch.
Laura: I've been involved in the community. I was on the local water board and I helped organize the fire department from day one.
What motivated you to get involved in SNAG?
Dot: A lot of people for a long time felt comfortable with Retech. Max (Schlienger) was charming and we had a sense of trust, which was obviously misplaced. The first real disturbing sign was when Retech backed out of their promise to include the neighbors in the development review process. I felt we had been duped. That was my motivation. I just felt it wasn't right. I felt indignant about it and wanted to do something about it.
Renee: Laura was the person who always noticed something going on at Retech. But I live closest to them so it was always right there in my face. There was no way I could not get involved.
Anny: It was not something I wanted to do because it is not like me at all to make noise. I usually don't like to be noticed. I am a peacemaker. But my husband and I have lived here for 23 years and we've been watching Retech mushroom. It made me angry and anger does a lot to get you motivated. And I've learned it's unconscionable to have other people fight my battles for me.
Laura: The one thing that really stirred me was when I came home one day and Retech was clearing out one more area to build on. I was so overwhelmed and shocked at how large the building was going to be that I just started talking to a few neighbors and getting on the phone. We all agreed we should meet and the rest is history.
What were your hesitations in getting involved as an activist?
Dot: I felt morally compelled to do what's right even if it meant I am going to be unpopular or controversial or less employable.
Anny: Oh, jeez, I thought, Lockheed-Martin is this huge billion-dollar international company; there is nothing we can do about it. But there was this little voice that said, well, at least you can try. And I thought what do I have to offer. I am not a leader. And once I got involved I was concerned I wasn't contributing enough,. I am not a quitter for one thing and I knew someone should be doing something and it might as well be me.
Renee: This is a small town so I was worried about the alienation from others. I see people now who I have this unintentionally adversarial relationship with. Also, it takes up an incredible amount of time. I have two children; a very busy life. At first you start out thinking your involvement will be a few hours a week (laughing). And then you realize it takes more time than that.
Laura: Getting involved made me feel really empowered. Before I was really afraid and I didn't want to make any enemies. But I knew I had to do it and that it would make me stronger as a woman. But at first I was fearful the Retech workers would sabotage my house. or that the neighbors would think we were kooks. I was fearful about my job. And I didn't want to hurt anyone during the whole process.
What inspired you to keep going?
Renee: The interpersonal relationships. The camaraderie of the group. We got to know one another. We got the county to listen. We put together a very polished presentation in front of the Board of Supervisors. That was a victory. It's been very rewarding to open the eyes of the County so they at least give the appearance they are checking into the situation at Retech.
Anny: Other people in the group kept me going. We made some new friendships out of this. And we brought Retech to the attention of the community and made the County heads scramble a bit to do something about Retech.
Dot: The group support; that's the key. All of us had our down weeks. We have to pick up the phone and call each other to get bolstered and encouraged. Our presentation at the first Board meeting was an incredible success because it was fact-based and we put some emotion into it as well. That was our outing and the occasion of being outed was really quite rewarding.
Laura: After the second Board of Supervisors meeting when Ukiah's finest booed us and made a mockery out of the supervisors, I was totally devastated. I was going to drop out and lay low for awhile. My husband said we should stick with this. I knew I couldn't let my friends down,. There's a camaraderie there. We had done so much research. And I knew we were right so I kept on going. Now I feel this has been the most interesting time of my life.
What have you learned about yourself and your community by getting involved?
Laura: I was always one of these people that was deathly afraid of what people thought abut me. It has forced me to take a stand, to defend my family and my neighborhood. I've made a commitment now to stand up for my rights.
I didn't realize before how corrupt government can be. I go by the rules and thought everyone else did. I have lost respect for the community leaders. Money talks and they're here to defend their own. I have been here for 25 years and seeing Ukiah's finest in action that day before the Board of Supervisors; I was totally taken aback by how rude they were.
Dot: I think we all hope our community members, be they corporate or individuals, all operate with integrity and that they play by the rules. And if they don't then we believe our local governing officials are entrusted to enforce the laws. But what we are learning in this situation is that we can't trust people to follow the rules. It is very disturbing. I guess I had higher expectations.
I made a big transition when I hit 40. I decided to take some risks. Now I am brave enough, and confident enough to take those risks. So it seems like, what the hell, it's time to pull the stops.
The women seem to carry the energy. I don't want to overlook the fact that everyone's husband works full-time. Beyond that, you know how women are kind of the social and cultural glue of a family usually? I think maybe this is the same thing on a larger scale. Women have a concern for the larger community family.
Anny: It's been a healthy thing for all of us. One of the most rewarding things though, is my kids are reading about us in the paper. My teenager says, "Way to go Mom."
Renee: I would prefer never to have been in this situation. As a middle-aged woman I have had first-hand experience now that government doesn't work and industry gets away with whatever it wants. All you have to do is file the proper paperwork and it's all okay. It is really amazing to me that that is true. Is that a rewarding thing? No. But it's been an eye-opener.
Laura: I've become friends with a whole new diverse set of people. I always thought environmentalists were a lot of hippies on welfare and drugs with nothing better to do. I always thought I wasn't about to go out there and hang in some tree. Now I laugh when the group talks about chaining ourselves to Retech's fence. I say okay, but let's wait until the weather is nicer and I have a baby-sitter for the kids.
Copyright Mendocino Environmental Center 1997
Permission granted to excerpt or use this article if source is cited