It was a grenade - with the pin missing. Soon the Fire Department s arson unit arrived to blow it up. Many residents are unaware of the Cold War legacy hidden high in the local hills - one that includes radioactive and chemical contamination, in addition to countless undetonated munitions. The site, surrounded by barbed wire and virtually inaccessible cliffs, is near the juncture of Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. Residents of Chino and Chino Hills claim that chemical and radioactive poisons oozing from the site are damaging their health, even causing cancers.
Residents there blame their sicknesses on cancer-causing chemicals and radioactive pollutants.
But unlike the Rocketdyne situation, the community in Chino Hills is disorganized. Despite reassurances from the government that a proposed cleanup plan will repair the damage, they point to secretive Aerojet restoration activities, a lack of company openness about chemicals deemed classified and an outright dismissal by Aerojet of responsibility for some of the toxins found in the area. And their misgivings may be legitimate - there is evidence that not only is the site polluted, but its toxins may have seeped toward the water supplies used by millions of Southern Californians. Aerojet produced potent and poisonous rocket fuel, including a perchlorate compound, a toxic rocket-fuel oxidizer that can lead to aplastic anemia and may cause autoimmune thyroid disease. The cities of Chino Hills and adjacent Chino both rely on well water drawn in Chino for residential use.