When the developer of controversial Runkle Canyon threw up new fences to keep out prying eyes, residents at the west end of Simi Valley upped the ante. They got hold of a 15-foot blimp, attached a high resolution camera, and sent it buzzing over the secretive home site. Michael Collins posts the photos at EnviroReporter.com and chronicles the fight in CityBeat, part of his ongoing coverage about the after-effects of years of nuclear testing and engine firing at Rocketdyne in the hills between Simi Valley and the Chatsworth-West Hills suburbs. Runkle Canyon, he says, "has repeatedly tested high for the leukemia-causing radionuclide strontium-90 (Sr-90)," left behind after a 1959 reactor meltdown that Collins calls "the worst nuclear disaster in American history."

Photo: EnviroReporter.com