San Onofre Nuclear Power Station Silences Camp Pendelton Sirens

CAMP PENDLETON, CA — Once, the sirens in the community 10 miles in every direction from the hulk of San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station stood as sentry to the community. If they sounded, residents would know to shelter in place or worse, evacuate, due to the highest emergency levels of radiation from the plant, known as a "site-area" and a "general emergency."

Today, that threat no longer exists.

Utility crews began decommissioning the sirens from San Clemente, Dana Point, San Juan Capistrano, and unincorporated Orange County areas on July 1.

The sirens, once required for the operation of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant, were deemed unnecessary after 2015, a Southern California Edison spokesperson said.

"Although emergency planning requirements are changing with the elimination of almost all accident scenarios, we continue to maintain a robust emergency planning and preparedness program," said Kelli Gallion, SCE's senior manager for Emergency Planning at San Onofre. "We thank our local community partners for working with us on the siren removal process."

Local communities were given the option of maintaining the sirens or poles for their own use. While none are keeping the actual siren function, some jurisdictions will be keeping the physical infrastructure.

Camp Pendleton, for instance, will use the siren hardware as part of its public address system. In other communities, the poles on which the sirens were attached will remain for street lighting or to support communication or video infrastructure.

The three sirens located on California State Parks land will be removed and the areas will be served by the adjacent communities and Camp Pendleton.

San Clemente – 19 sirens: San Clemente will retain five poles to support existing streetlights and infrastructure.

The city has an active Emergency Planning and Preparedness program.

San Juan Capistrano – 9 sirens: San Juan Capistrano will be retaining two of the poles to support existing streetlights and infrastructure.

The city maintains a comprehensive Emergency Management program and encourages residents to learn more about these efforts.

Dana Point – 8 sirens: Dana Point is keeping seven of the eight poles installed by SCE and is actively looking for a new system that will provide the city with additional siren and messaging capabilities and allow for clear verbal messaging.

The system would be used to disseminate information regarding disasters, hazards or public announcements, as well as to provide system-wide and individual siren control for disbursement of specific information to specific areas of the city.

The SONGS reactors are now quiet, retired after 39 years in service. The sirens never once went off in all the time they stood watch over south Orange County.