A Santa Monica-based advocacy group that has been critical of the California Department of Toxic Substances Control called on Gov. Jerry Brown Thursday to appoint a new director who will raise regulation standards on contaminated sites and bring reform to the agency.

A Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled in favor of environmental groups and imposed a preliminary injunction on the Department of Toxic Substances Control to stop approving building demolitions at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

The ruling, filed Dec. 11, came after four environmental groups filed a joint lawsuit in August against the DTSC and the Department of Public Health.

A Los Angeles judge has sided with Consumer Watchdog and ordered the DTSC to halt approval of Boeing's illegal demolition and disposal of radioactive waste from the Santa Susana site.

A superior court judge has temporarily stopped state regulators from approving the demolition and disposal of debris from a former nuclear research lab in Ventura County out of concerns the material is radioactive.

Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Allen Sumner ruled the Department of Toxic Substances Control must undertake an environmental review of plans to tear down the so-called Area Four site in Santa Susana currently owned by Boeing. A half century ago, the facility was home to nuclear research and rocket development and the site of a partial nuclear meltdown.

SANTA MONICA, CA –The Sacramento Superior Court granted a motion for preliminary injunction against the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) pending final outcome of a lawsuit filed by Consumer Watchdog counsel and Strumwasser & Woocher on behalf of Consumer Watchdog and three other groups over the illegal demolition and disposal of radioactive debris from Boeing's Santa Susana nuclear reactor an

A Superior Court judge has granted a preliminary injunction Monday against California's Department of Toxic Substances Control, saying the state agency failed to comply with environmental laws while overseeing Boeing's demolition and disposal of buildings at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

Environmental watchdogs scored a victory last week when a Sacramento judge stopped state toxics regulators from approving Boeing’s demolition and disposal of buildings once used for nuclear research at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley.

Environmentalists in a new legal filing this week say they have evidence showing that the toxics department has authority over the disposal of radioactive waste at the controversial Santa Susana industrial site in southern California, debunking the department's claim that it lacks such authority.

The judge in the lawsuit has already filed a tentative ruling siding with environmentalists, but has yet to finalize the ruling in order to review thousands of pages of evidence in the record.

Environmentalists fear that a recent announcement by the toxics department that it will consider various cleanup alternatives at the controversial Santa Susana industrial site in southern California may be a veiled attempt to unravel an agreement made between the agency and responsible parties to clean the site to strict "background" levels of radiation.

But the department this week says it still intends to impose strict cleanup standards except for portions of the site owned by Boeing, which is not a party to the agreement.