Air Tests Planned at Santa Susana Lab
By Kerry Cavanaugh, Staff Writer
Los Angeles Daily News
30 September 2005
Air-quality regulators planned to sample the air around the Santa Susana Field Lab late Thursday for contamination that may have been released when the Topanga Fire roared through the hilltop lab.

Thursday was supposed to be the day of the final rocket test at the field lab, ending testing operations at the hilltop site. Instead, it was at the center of a massive brush fire that stretched miles through the rugged area.

Several vacant buildings at the site were burned, and an office and machine shop were damaged by the flames. But hazardous waste and radioactive facilities were not affected, according to the Boeing Co., which owns the lab.

Boeing spokesman Dan Beck said no contamination was released as a result of the fire, and there was no risk to lab neighbors.

"We're confident that there has been no release of hazardous material that could pose a threat to the community and we don't believe there will be any."

However, South Coast Air Quality Management District officials said they would try to sample the air around the lab for chemicals if they can get close enough to the site.

"This is sort of a unique situation. We have a facility that has a lot of known toxic contamination in the soil and some of the contamination may have been released into the air," said Sam Atwood, AQMD spokesman. The district will also try to find equipment to follow up with several days of testing for dioxins, furans, PCBs and hydrochloric acid - toxic contaminants that have been found in the lab soil.

Beck said the company plans to test the property after the fire is cleared, but immediate environmental concerns are unwarranted.

"There isn't the contamination there at levels that are going to dissipate through water or smoke that would cause harm to public health."

Lab watchdogs pressed for environmental regulators to visit the site Thursday to test for potential contamination that could have been burned with the topsoil and vegetation.

"We're talking about 40 years of using the most exotic chemical known to man. It's fallen on the flora. All we're saying is get some tests out there," said Jonathan Parfrey with Physicians for Social Responsibility.

His group called the air quality regulators for Ventura and Los Angeles counties to ask for air monitors downwind of the fire. Others said they didn't expect the wildfire to release deep soil pollution at the site.

"I would be more concerned about the chemicals created by the fire, then the fire mobilizing chemicals at the site," said Yoram Cohen, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has studied contamination at the field lab. Wildfires and the burning of vegetation creates toxic air contamination.

Department of Toxic Substances Control spokeswoman Jeanne Garcia said her agency, which oversees the decade-long cleanup of the lab, will visit the site once the fire is cleared and safe for staff.

Boeing and its predecessors tested engines that powered the Delta 2 rocket and the space shuttle. The lab will still conduct government research.

Blaze Spurs Fear of Chemical Release
By Hector Becerra
Times Staff Writer
September 30, 2005

A flank of the Topanga fire stormed onto the Rocketdyne facility in Ventura County on Thursday, stoking fears that hazardous and flammable materials would burn and waft into populated areas.

The wildfire damaged or destroyed abandoned outbuildings, tool shops and office space at the sprawling, 2,800-acre former nuclear research site. The facility has also been used to test rocket engines.

As of late Thursday, most of the operational buildings were safe and the fire had not reached containers holding hazardous chemicals, including radioactive and other material being cleaned up, said Dan Beck, a spokesman for Boeing Co., which owns the Santa Susana Field Laboratory property.

Boeing owned Rocketdyne for years but this past summer sold the company to United Technologies. Although the land belongs to Boeing, Rocketdyne still does work there.

The fire prompted the evacuation of 200 employees and canceled what would have been the plant's last rocket engine test. As a precaution, the South Coast Air Quality Management District began testing for chemical compounds in response to safety concerns.

Jonathan Parfrey of Physicians for Social Responsibility said that despite an ongoing environmental cleanup at the plant, it was inevitable that contaminated soil, chaparral and other plants would burn and "liberate" toxins into the air. He called for air monitoring.

"Without a doubt, there's plants and soil and buildings that are still contaminated," Parfrey said. "We're talking 40, 50 years of using some of the most exotic materials in the planet."

Dan Hirsch of the anti-nuclear group Committee to Bridge the Gap said he and others have warned for years about the danger that fires posed to such facilities. "This is one of the most toxic places in California," he said.

But Beck said that the plant's hazardous material containers were safe and that there was no indication that toxic material had been dispersed into the air because of the fire.

Beck said the steel storage containers are kept on concrete and asphalt surfaces to create a buffer against wildfires.

"It's an industrial facility … so there are hazardous materials on the site," he said. "But we have a very detailed and thorough contingency plan to deal with that kind of emergency."

The AQMD dispatched people Thursday evening to collect air samples downwind of the facility, agency spokesman Sam Atwood said.

The test, which checks for volatile organic compounds such as chemical solvents, could yield results by today. A more sophisticated test to sample for more exotic compounds such as PCBs and dioxin also will be administered, Atwood said.

"With a facility such as this one, which is known to have extensive toxic contamination, it does raise concern about the fire potentially releasing contaminants into the air," he said.

The Santa Susana Field Laboratory has been in a sharp decline since its peak in the 1950s and mid-1960s.

Now, Boeing employees work on research and development projects for Defense Department customers, Beck said.

Perchlorate Information Withheld, Suit Alleges
By Miguel Bustillo Times Staff Writer
March 25, 2004
The Bush administration is illegally withholding information about the ill effects of ammonium perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient that has tainted water supplies in at least 29 states, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in L.A. by the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The environmental group contends that the administration has broken the law by failing to turn over documents in response to requests for perchlorate-related records under the Freedom of Information Act.

The environmental group requested the records from the White House, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Defense. It sought details of what government officials knew about the scope of perchlorate pollution and the health effects of the contaminant. It also sought to determine whether defense officials had sought to soften EPA health rules governing perchlorate, said an attorney for the environmental group, Aaron Colangelo.

"The issue from our perspective is children's health, and to get to the bottom of it, we filed requests" for information, Colangelo said. "We believe this administration has been working with industry behind closed doors to keep protective standards from being passed."

An EPA official said Wednesday that the agency was "actively working on" the organization's information request.

Perchlorate has been used in fireworks, road flares and other items, in addition to munitions, and is in the booster rockets that propel the space shuttle.

Studies of laboratory rats have shown that tiny doses of perchlorate can affect the thyroid's production of hormones crucial to development in early childhood. However, the level at which it poses a danger to humans is unclear.

Perchlorate's Spread can't be Verified
Investigators Disagree on Soil Sampling Methods at Santa Susana Field Lab
By Roberta Freeman
Ventura County Star Staff Writer
March 26, 2004
An ongoing 15-year investigation of chemical and radioactive contamination at the Boeing Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab in the hills above Simi Valley has failed to definitively verify that hazardous substances have migrated to the surrounding communities.

During a public meeting of the Santa Susana Field Lab Workgroup this week, state investigators said they have found little evidence of contamination leaving the site via surface water in recent months.

The debate rages among members of the public, as it did at Wednesday night's meeting, and state and federal agencies conducting the investigation are locked in disagreement over sampling methods and cleanup procedures.

Meanwhile, perchlorate in Simi Valley groundwater is lurking near a well that provides water that is blended with imported water and added to the local drinking supply. The well supplies just a fraction of the local drinking water and is monitored regularly.

After Wednesday's meeting, which ran late into the night at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center, City Manager Mike Sedell said he is concerned about perchlorate contamination throughout the city's aquifer and is growing impatient waiting for answers.

He declined to speculate if the Boeing Co. site is the source of the contamination and said the city is relying on the expertise of state and federal agencies, including the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, to make that determination.

"It needs to be cleaned up," Sedell said. "We are anxious to see it get resolved before any potential health problems."

Keeping in mind shrinking state and local budgets, he then posed another tough question, asking, "Second of all, who is going to pay for it?"

The 2,800-acre lab is a subsidiary of Boeing. Opened in 1948, the site contains chemical and radioactive contamination from rocket testing and nuclear research conducted throughout the Cold War.

Perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel, is a source of pollution in 563 drinking water wells throughout California, including near the Colorado River, and is linked to thyroid disorders and mental retardation in infants.

"All sites have a connection with rocket testing and military operations," said Jonathan Parfrey, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility and a Field Lab Workgroup member.

Studies indicate lettuce and other leafy produce irrigated with perchlorate-contaminated river water absorb the chemical. The chemical has also been found in mustard greens, cow's milk and melons, Parfrey said. More long-term studies are needed to know the full impact of perchlorate on human health.

Residents Urged to be Careful

Panelists at Wednesday's meeting recommended caution for Simi Valley residents living in high groundwater areas growing backyard gardens.

Nearly 50 people from Ventura County and the San Fernando Valley attended the meeting. Panelists from the Field Lab Workgroup included representatives from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control and the state Environmental Protection Agency. Representatives from the U.S. Department of Energy and the state Department of Health Services were absent. Boeing officials, who usually attend, were not at the meeting.

UCLA chemical engineering professor Yoram Cohen, the lead researcher conducting a hazard assessment of the Field Lab, told the audience about gaps in available information for his study.

By using information gleaned from reports supplied by Rocketdyne and other sources, the UCLA/Santa Susana Field Laboratory Public Health Initiative aims to determine what chemicals were used at the lab and how they might have left the site via air, groundwater or surface water since the 1940s.

He said, however, that Boeing has denied some of his attempts to obtain records.

"We have been turned down on a number of occasions, because that information is sensitive," Cohen said.

"Because of litigation, they are no longer sharing that information."

He questioned the quality of sampling done at the Field Lab in the past and speculated the site might have rated higher on the federal EPA's Superfund cleanup priority list if more people lived nearby.

"The one issue that troubles us is future use of the site," Cohen said.

Soil Sampling Insufficient

Dan Hirsch, co-chair of the Field Lab Workgroup, agreed that soil sampling for radioactive contamination at the lab and in the surrounding communities has been insufficient. He also argued that chemical contamination had not been considered.

"The EPA reviewed no soil data for Simi Valley, Chatsworth, Thousand Oaks or any other primary residential areas of concern," Hirsch said.

EPA representative Fran Schultz countered that the agency's characterization of the site needs to be kept within the context of current land use -- how many people live there and whether drinking water is directly threatened.

"It's a tool only to identify the worst out of control sites in the country," Schultz said.

She said other agencies and local planning and permitting authorities were charged with regulating future use of the site.

In May, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board will review Boeing's surface runoff permit, which must be renewed.

The Field Lab Workgroup is scheduled to meet again in June.



Field Lab Monitors to Meet
Simi Valley session will include updates on contamination near and at the Rocketdyne site.

From a Times Staff Writer
March 19, 2004
The next meeting of a public group that monitors cleanup of Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Lab is scheduled for Wednesday evening at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center.

Officials from the Environmental Protection Agency, which is coordinating the meeting, will again discuss the EPA's system for rating the hazardousness of the site, which was used for nuclear energy tests for four decades. The lab now tests rocket engines and laser optics.

Last fall, the EPA decided that the level of radioactive contamination at the lab, though troubling, was not severe enough to place it on the federal Superfund priority list.*

The session, scheduled from 6:30 to 10 p.m., will include an update on investigations into perchlorate contamination at and near the site. Perchlorate is an ingredient of rocket fuel, fireworks, road flares and explosives. Representatives of the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the state Department of Toxic Substances Control are expected at the group's meeting.

The Department of Energy, which commissioned Rocketdyne to conduct the nuclear testing, is not expected to be represented at the session. A DOE spokesman said the agency would continue public outreach to discuss its lab cleanup.

The meeting will be in the multipurpose room on the lower level of the arts center, 3050 Los Angeles Ave. For more information, call EPA project coordinator John Beach at (415) 972-3347.

*Felkins Note: The EPA has not placed the site on the Federal Superfund Priority List strictly due to the fact that there are no residences onsite.

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