IN THE DARK OF THE VALLEY – Review by Lois Alter Mark

Stop whatever you’re doing and go watch this powerful documentary right now. (It’s streaming on NBC and Peacock.) Focusing on “one of the most significant nuclear accidents in United States history,” In the Dark of the Valley is a vital call for action to hold corporations accountable for the harm they cause in their insatiable pursuit of profits.

You know where this devastating story is unfortunately heading right from the start as Melissa Bumstead, a Southern California mom, begs the powers to be to “do the right thing” and clean up the Santa Susana Field Lab, whose toxic waste may have been responsible for the leukemia her nine year old daughter, Grace, has already survived twice. It turns out Grace is not the only child in the neighborhood to have gotten a rare form of cancer and there are far too many cases to believe it’s merely a coincidence.

Director Nicholas Mihm follows the story from this horrifying realization, going back to the 1959 – yes, 1959 – accident that was covered up as no big deal but that was eventually determined to have released more radiation than Three Mile Island. By the time the truth starts to come out, people have fallen ill and children have died. But Boeing, NASA, the Department of Energy and the Department of Toxic Substances Control still refused to take responsibility and, despite a 2017 ruling for them to fully clean up the contamination, nothing has changed seven years later.

In 2018, the Woolsey fire – the one that burned more than 96,000 acres of land and 1,600 structures – started in the same area. “Our worst fear was that a fire there would spread the toxins, and it’s happened,” said Bumstead. If Santa Susana Field Lab had been cleaned up when it was ordered to, so much more tragedy could have been prevented.

At its most recent public hearing, NASA wouldn’t let the public comment and they proposed a cleanup that would cost less – and would, knowingly, leave 84% of contaminants in the ground. Boeing even had the audacity to admit in one of their reports that “the risk after such proposed minimal cleanup would remain so high that every fifth person would most likely get cancer from the remaining contamination.” Yet, they stood by the proposal because they knew no one was going to make them actually do anything.

How are they getting away with this?

Bumstead, who has become the voice of the fight, founded Parents Against Santa Susana Field Lab and has collected more than 750,000 signatures so far on a Change.org petition demanding a full cleanup. Although she admits that she’s often overwhelmed, exhausted and afraid and that this is not how she wants to spend her life, she swears, “I will never put my children at risk because I’m too scared to say anything.” She has learned to follow the money and she’s become an advocate for all kids, not just her own.

That she’s made any progress at all is testament to the fact that, as Denise Duffield of Physicians for Social Responsibility says in the film, “There’s no force on earth more powerful than a mother wanting to protect her children.”

Unfortunately, what happened at Santa Susana is not an isolated incident and the filmmakers reveal that similar accidents have also happened in other parts of the country. It’s long past time to enforce the laws and hold people, companies and government agencies accountable for their actions, and In the Dark of the Valley just may spur the public to join the fight.

It’s natural to feel sad when you’re first introduced to the sick children but, as the film continues, you’ll find yourself getting mad. You’ll get angrier and angrier until you’re completely outraged – and that’s much more productive. Sign Bumstead’s petition, make a donation, write to your elected officials and demand action.

Because, as Bumstead even has to sometimes remind herself, “If you don’t fight, you always lose.”