Old Nuclear Lab Near Simi Valley is Closer to Making Superfund List
Agency Says the Site Near Simi Valley Should Get Superfund Money.

By Gregory W. Griggs
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
December 11, 2007

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has determined that a former nuclear and rocket engine testing facility at Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley should be added to the national Superfund cleanup list.

In a letter sent last week to California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the EPA's San Francisco office recapped the history of chemical and radioactive contamination at the 2,850-acre hilltop lab that first began operations as a nuclear research facility in 1948. Later, it also became a rocket engine testing facility.

According to the EPA, soil and water poisoned with trichloroethylene, estimated at more than 500,000 gallons, forced the closure of on-site drinking wells in 1980. And 32 years of nuclear testing at the lab produced radioactive pollutants that have tainted water at the location and could affect "municipal drinking water supplies in the future."

The federal agency has reviewed the field lab in the past, but previously looked only at radiological contaminants and then concentrated on just a portion of the lab site.

"When we look at the site as a whole, we feel that it would qualify for the National Priorities List," said Mike Montgomery, regional chief of the Superfund program.

The new designation would mean more funding for ongoing cleanup and would shift oversight from the state to the federal government.

The EPA has asked the governor's office to respond in writing within 30 days.

If Schwarzenegger agrees with the recommendation, the EPA's regional office would forward its request to its Washington, D.C., headquarters for final approval.

"This is a great development. We've been praying for this for 20 years," said Daniel Hirsch, president of the nuclear policy watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap. "We now pray that the governor does not block it at the last minute."

Boeing spokeswoman Blythe Jameson said the company, which is primarily responsible for cleaning the field lab it purchased from Rockwell International in the summer of 1996, does not expect any drastic changes if final oversight is transferred from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control to the U.S. government.

In September, Boeing pledged that it would clean up its portion of the land, 2,400 acres, to "acceptable community" standards and turn it over to the state. NASA owns the remaining portion of the lab site.

"The EPA's decision will not affect Boeing's commitment to clean up the site," Jameson said.

Field Lab Secret Revealed

Napalm, Dioxin Burned In Open pit At Former Rocketdyne Facility

BY KERRY CAVANAUGH, Staff Writer
LA Daily News
21 August, 2006

After decades of secrecy, Boeing officials have revealed that the former owners of the Santa Susana Field Lab destroyed napalm, dioxin and other highly toxic materials in open-air burn pits, documents obtained Monday show.

The 184 pages of documents that Boeing delivered last week to the Department of Toxic Substances Control include logs detailing how Rocketdyne detonated and destroyed hundreds of thousands of pounds of toxic liquids and gases at the so-called Area 1 burn pit.

The list includes 50 gallons of napalm burned in 1969, three gallons of dioxin burned in 1971, and the destruction of flammable waste in 1990 that resulted in a 10-foot-high fireball.

Concern about the potential health hazard to workers prompted state officials to postpone a planned cleanup of the pit.

"With this new information we think we may need to fully characterize this burn pit to figure out what went in there and what was burned there," DTSC spokesman Ron Baker said. "We can't move forward with a big question mark."

State officials have ordered Boeing to cap the pit with clay or grass to prevent runoff from carrying contaminated soil off the hilltop lab. That will give Boeing and state officials more time to investigate the contamination in the pit.

The documents were prepared by the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International, which was later purchased by the Boeing Co. They show that Rocketdyne's Canoga Park facility also sent material up to the lab for disposal - information that surprised state regulators.

Boeing spokeswoman Blythe Jameson said DTSC officials had requested records of the burn pit and that the company is compiling even more historic documents on the pit usage.

"This site was primarily used to destroy rocket fuels, chemicals to support rocket engine tests and other rocket engine waste," she said.

The Santa Susana Field Lab is a 2,800-acre facility at the top of the Simi Hills in Ventura County, near the Los Angeles city limits. Beginning in the 1940s, the Department of Energy experimented with 10 nuclear reactors, one of which experienced a partial meltdown. The lab also tested rocket engines under contracts with the Department of Defense and NASA.

The Daily News first disclosed serious concerns about contamination at the field lab in 1989, including questionable practices involving disposal of toxic materials in the burn pit.

Since then, neighbors have pushed for a community health study. Their calls grew louder after the University of California, Los Angeles, released studies in 1997 and 1999 showing that workers who handled radiation and a rocket-fuel chemical had higher rates of cancer than those who had not.

Longtime Santa Susana watchdogs said the community has always been told the open burning was highly regulated and monitored, yet the logs indicate workers frequently destroyed containers of unknown materials.

"Everybody has been made to believe the contamination stayed on site, but when you look at the gallons and gallons of materials that were burned and the clouds moved off site, I think the public has been misled," said Mary Weisbrock of Save Open Space.

The documents include workers' notes on how they burned the materials - pouring chemicals on sawdust, igniting the mixture, then observing the smoke.

In one test conducted at 8:40 a.m. April 29, 1989, workers burned a blue cylinder containing unknown material. A handwritten note on the log notes: "Still off-gassing at 12:30! Probably F2," a reference to fluorine, a poisonous, pale yellow gas.

According to a letter written by Rockwell officials in 1981, the Area 1 burn pit was established in 1958 so workers could get rid of chemical waste in order to "minimize potential public exposure which could result from transport across public highways to dispose in a conventional landfill."

That letter says workers burned 13,810 pounds of reactive metals, such as sodium and magnesium; 450,000 gallons of fuel, including hydrazine; and toxic gases such as chlorine.

The pit was supposed to close in 1971 because there were concerns about air pollution, but records show that employees burned waste through 1990.

Soil testing in 2003 and 2005 found high levels of rocket-fuel ingredient perchlorate, chromium and highly toxic dioxins. The cleanup became even more urgent as regulators began finding dioxins and other contaminants in surface water running off the lab into creeks.

The DTSC had planned to remove 6,500 cubic yards of tainted soil from the pit but that effort is now on hold pending the review of the historic burn records.

IF YOU GO:
The state Department of Toxic Substances Control will hold an informational meeting on the Santa Susana Field Lab, 3-5 p.m. Aug. 31 at Simi Valley City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road. A public meeting is set for 6:30 p.m.

Rocketdyne Burned Toxic Agents, Papers Say

Old Documents Reveal Pollutants Handled at Santa Susana Field Lab

By Teresa Rochester
Ventura County Star
August 23, 2006

Potassium cyanide, napalm, dioxin and chromium are among a host of toxic chemicals burned in an open-air pit at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, according to documents released by the State Department overseeing the cleanup of chemical contaminants at the former rocket engine test site.

The nearly 200 pages of documents were submitted to the Department of Toxic Substances Control by Boeing Co. last week. The department wanted to know more about the area because it was slated for stop-gap cleanup to keep pollutants from contaminating surface water running off the site.

This is the first time the documents have been made public. The 184 pages, which were written when Rocketdyne operated, included both handwritten and typed logs of chemicals destroyed in the burn pit. Rocketdyne was the previous owner.

In 1969, 50 gallons of Napalm were burned. In 1971, two cans of mercury were destroyed, but in the column marked disposal method, there is a question mark.

On April, 15, 1989, something listed as Compound A was also destroyed in the pit. Under "description of reaction," the handwritten notes read "corrosive white thick smoke � yellow tinge."

On Sept. 26, 1990, the weather was calm with high clouds, sunny with winds at 3 mph, when "flammable waste" was burned, according to a log. There was a 10-foot-high fireball and smoke the first minute, followed by light smoke the second minute.

The revelations surprised officials with the Department of Toxic Substances Control.

"That's why we put everything on hold, as far as the interim (cleanup) measure, when we received the new information," said Jeanne Garcia, a spokeswoman with the department. "We needed to look at all the historical records and we need to review them."

State officials were also surprised to learn that Rocketdyne had trucked in hazardous waste from its Canoga Park facility to be destroyed in the Field Laboratory's burn pit.

"We thought the waste was generated on site, not off-site," Garcia said.

A Boeing spokesperson could not be reached for comment.

Garcia credited community members who suggested there was more to the burn pit than was previously revealed.

Community members were successful in getting the department to hold a public hearing regarding the interim cleanup, even though the department is not required by law to do so.

The hearing was scheduled for Aug. 31. Instead, the Department of Toxic Substances Control will provide a presentation on what is in these previously unknown documents.

The department has asked Boeing to implement a plan to prevent contamination running off the site in water during the rainy winter season. Some of the measures could include fabric cover that will go over the area, the installation of fiber rolls to slow down the flow of surface water and hydro mulching on exposed areas.

The burn pit area was built in 1958 for the disposal of chemical fuels so they would not have to be trucked to and disposed of in a landfill, according to a March 4, 1981, letter to the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The letter states that 191 gallons of heavy metal toxicants, including potassium cyanide and leaded paint, toxic gases, including fluorine gas and chlorine gas and 13,810 pounds of reactive metals, including magnesium and potassium, were destroyed in the pit.

The letter states the pit closed in 1971 due to air-pollution concerns, but records show the destruction of hazardous material continued until 1990.

Regulators Back Neighbors in Boeing Case
Company's Request to Ease Water-Pollution Rules Rejected

By Kerry Cavanaugh, Staff Writer
LA Daily News
1/19/2006 08:51 PM

SIMI VALLEY - Los Angeles regulators Thursday rejected the Boeing Co.'s request to relax water-pollution limits at the Santa Susana Field Lab and said they plan to punish the company for nearly 50 water-quality violations at the site last year. The decision by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board overruled a request by Boeing and the U.S. Air Force to weaken pollution limits on storm water flowing off the hilltop lab for four years.

Rather, the appointed board sided with environmentalists and lab neighbors who complained that Boeing has repeatedly violated its water-quality permit with impunity.

"The public has borne these costs and now it's time for the polluter to bear these costs," said board member Francine Diamond. Water officials could not say what penalties Boeing might face for its past violations, but said they are working on an enforcement plan. Their decision also added new, more stringent pollution limits on water leaving the site and included a recommendation that Boeing hire an independent monitor to reassure community members that the test results are legitimate.

The field lab is a 2,800-acre property at the top of the Simi Hills, on the Ventura-Los Angeles county line. Starting in the late 1940s, scientists conducted nuclear research and tested rocket engines on behalf of the departments of Energy and Defense, leaving extensive radiological and toxic contamination on the property.

The site's water permit regulates storm water and industrial water flowing from the property into creeks that eventually hit the Los Angeles River and Arroyo Simi.

Between July 2004 and April 2005, Boeing received 48 permit violations citing higher-than-allowed levels of mercury, dioxins and other contaminants.

In response, Boeing argued that the new pollution limits were too stringent. The company had asked for four years to study where the contamination is coming from and to develop a plan to prevent pollutants from moving off-site - without fear of penalties. In addition, the company pushed for lenience after the Topanga Fire in September that burned 70 percent of the lab and created a serious erosion problem.

"Boeing has done everything within its power to meet these limits," Boeing attorney Sharon Rubalcava told officials, and she argued that the board's lack of flexibility "set us up for failure."

But neighbors argued that water officials have been too lenient with Boeing.

"This company has been violating over and over and they're asking for a free pass," said Marie Mason, a Simi Valley resident. "We're real humans with children and grandchildren living below this area." Frustrated with slow enforcement, the Committee to Bridge the Gap in December sent Boeing a 60-day notice that the group intended to sue the company for violating the Clean Water Act.

In a separate action, a federal grand jury is investigating the field lab's water-quality violations and demanded documents relating to the storm water and wastewater.

Boeing Cited After Contamination Found

By Kerry Cavanaugh
Los Angeles Daily News Staff Writer

Friday, March 18, 2005 - The Boeing Co. was cited for violating its permits after dioxin and mercury contamination was found in storm water leaving the Santa Susana Field Lab, officials said.

Boeing officials said they believe the contaminants are the result of ash blown onto the site during brush fires in 2003 and 2004 and not from dioxin-tainted soil found at the lab.

Lab watchdogs are skeptical that wildfire ash is the source, but officials at the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board reserved judgment.

"It's conceivable it could be due to fires. We have this data now and it's pretty clear there is a violation," said Blythe Ponek-Bacharowski of the water board.

"We'll further evaluate the data to see if this rises to the level of issuing a penalty to Boeing."

The violations were detected during storms in October and December when runoff from the site flowed into Dayton Canyon Creek, Bell Creek and the Arroyo Simi. Water tests conducted during the January and February storms are due next month.

Levels of the toxins were below those allowed for drinking water, but exceeded those designed to protect fish and other aquatic life.

Boeing environmental managers said they conducted toxicity tests, which analyze whether the most sensitive species are being affected by contaminants, and found no violations.

Field lab workers used to burn old fuel and debris, which left high concentrations of highly toxic chemicals at the site.

Brush fires can also create dioxins, and the Simi Valley area was the site of large and small wildfires in 2003 and 2004, said Paul Costa, manager of the lab's environmental protection department.

"The best evidence we have is that the initial rain washed down the ash that had been incorporated in Santa Susana (Field Lab) and that's where the hits are coming from."

Jonathan Parfrey of Physicians for Social Responsibility said that dioxins are found throughout the lab and it's logical to assume the contamination is from the site.

"Dioxins are the product of burning chlorine and they have burned a lot of chlorine. The idea that this is from ash floating from somewhere else is patently absurd," Parfrey said. "I don't see this as posing an immediate threat, but nevertheless they broke it ... they need to clean it up."

Radioactive Plume Found at Rocketdyne

Boeing Officials Say the Tainted Groundwater Isn't A Health Risk
By staff and wire reports
September 11, 2004

A radioactive plume has been detected in two new test wells at the Boeing Co. Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab, a former nuclear research facility near Simi Valley, officials said.

High levels of radioactive tritium were detected in the test wells drilled by the U.S. Department of Energy after tritium was discovered earlier this year in groundwater at the northern edge of the research site in the Simi Hills.

The agency now plans to drill more wells to determine the source of the plume, its size and the speed and direction of its movement.

Boeing officials said the plume is still close to the source and hasn't moved off-site. They also said the tainted groundwater isn't used for drinking and doesn't pose a health risk to the public or neighbors.

The DOE is ending its 15-year-long cleanup of the former nuclear laboratory. The agency has been investigating a handful of sites where tritium might have been released, based on 40-year-old records detailing how radioactive materials were handled.

A groundwater sample taken in March from a test well drilled next to the site of an experimental reactor found tritium at 80,000 picocuries per liter, or four times the federal drinking-water standard.

Tritium has not yet been detected in a cluster of monitoring wells located downhill from the site, but residents wonder whether the reports have been accurate.

"The question is what got off the site and what else was released from the site?" said Dan Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear-watchdog group that has been monitoring the cleanup effort.

Federal officials said they plan to conduct more groundwater testing later this year.

Tritium, a byproduct of a nuclear reaction, has been found at the lab before, but never at such high levels.

In 1991, it was detected at 5,400 picocuries per liter on nearby property owned by the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, which runs a Jewish camp and educational facility.

Other chemicals were found in soil samples two years later taken from the camp along the property line with Rocketdyne.

The federal government funded nuclear research at the lab run by Rocketdyne, now a division of Boeing, from the 1950s through the 1980s.

Meanwhile this week, the State Water Resources Control Board took testimony in Sacramento from Committee to Bridge the Gap and Boeing officials regarding a water pollution permit issued to the Field Lab in July.

Last month, both sides appealed the permit issued by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, the committee saying it was too lax and Boeing saying it was too stringent.

The state board is expected to rule within the next few weeks.

Army Corps of Engineers to Study Need for Perchlorate Probe

November 30, 2004

The Army Corps of Engineers will receive $100,000 to study whether the federal government should investigate the local underground migration of perchlorate, a solvent that has been found in wells in southeastern Simi Valley.

The money for the study was part of the year's final spending bill approved by Congress last week.

Congressman Elton Gallegly lobbied for the study, which would also assess the potential negative impact on city residents.

Perchlorate, a solvent used in rocket testing, has been discovered in water wells on the valley floor.

The chemical was used at Rocketdyne's field laboratory in the hills south of the city. Soil there also is contaminated with the substance.

Officials with Boeing Co., which owns the facility, have denied that the perchlorate found in Simi Valley came from the lab.
Copyright 2004, Ventura County Star. All Rights Reserved.

Radioactive Tritium Found in Highest Levels Yet at Rocketdyne Field Lab

By Kerry Cavanaugh
Daily News Staff Writer

Thursday, September 09, 2004 - SIMI VALLEY -- High levels of radioactive tritium were detected in two new test wells at the Santa Susana Field Lab, confirming the existence of a radioactive plume at the former nuclear research facility, officials said Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Energy drilled the test wells after discovering tritium earlier this year in the groundwater at the northern edge of the research site in the Simi Hills, where Rocketdyne operated a nuclear reactor. The DOE now plans to drill additional wells to determine the source of the plume, its size, and the speed and direction of its movement.

"The reactor was in operation 40 years ago and the plume still appears close to the source. It hasn't moved off site," said Majelle Lee, project manager with Boeing Co., which owns the lab.

The tainted groundwater is not used for drinking and does not pose a health risk to the public or neighbors, officials said.

Neighbors and critics of the laboratory are wary of the DOE's results and questioned whether the radioactive contamination is more extensive than the company suspects.

"The question is what got off the site and what else was released from the site," said Dan Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear-watchdog group.

The DOE is nearing the end of its 15-year-long cleanup of the former nuclear laboratory. The agency has been investigating a handful of sites where tritium may have been released, based on 40-year-old records detailing how radioactive materials were handled.

A groundwater sample taken in March from a test well drilled next to the site of an experimental reactor found tritium at 80,000 picocuries per liter -- or four times the drinking-water standard.

In August, consultants drilled two wells near the tritium hit and found tritium at 80,000 and 16,000 picocuries per liter, respectively.

Tritium has not yet been detected in a cluster of monitoring wells located downhill from the site. It has, however, been found at background levels in two wells drilled nearly 1,500 feet away at the Sodium Reactor Experiment site, where the largest and most famous reactor sustained a meltdown in 1959, officials said.

The DOE will conduct more groundwater testing this fall at both locations.

Tritium, a byproduct of a nuclear reaction, has been found at the lab before, but never at such high levels.

In 1991, it was detected at 5,400 picocuries per liter on nearby property owned by the Brandeis Bardin Institute, which runs a Jewish camp and educational facility.

And in 1993, tritium, strontium 90, cesium 137 and plutonium 238 were found in soil samples taken from the camp along the Rocketdyne property line. The readings were considered low enough not to pose a health threat, although Boeing purchased a patch of camp property closest to the lab.

DOE project manager Mike Lopez said the agency will probably conduct an environmental report next year and hold public hearings on what to do about the contaminated groundwater.

The federal government funded nuclear research at the lab, which was run by Rocketdyne, now a division of Boeing, from the 1950s through the 1980s. The Daily News first disclosed in 1989 that a DOE survey had found massive radioactive and chemical contamination at the site, triggering a cleanup.

The DOE is nearing the end of the site decontamination and last year announced its plan to remove about 1 percent of the tainted soil, prompting community outrage and a notice from the Natural Resources Defense Council that it would sue over the cleanup.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which provided some oversight of the cleanup until last year, said the plan could leave the former nuclear test site unsafe for even casual picnicking.

The DOE has come under fire for dropping out of the Santa Susana Field Lab Working Group, a multiagency and community group that reviews the cleanup in a forum of experts and concerned neighbors. Instead the DOE is holding its own public meetings.

"The community has totally lost faith not only in Rocketdyne but the Department of Energy because they have given us bad information in the past," said Barbara Johnson, a lab neighbor who's been following the cleanup for more than a decade.

Perchlorate Testing Eyed Near Santa Susana Rocket Lab Requirement Proposed in Ventura County

By Kerry Cavanaugh
Daily News Staff Writer
Monday, July 26, 2004

- The Ventura County Board of Supervisors plans to vote today on a proposed requirement to test soil and groundwater before approving subdivisions on unincorporated land within two miles of the Santa Susana Field Lab.

The testing order around the contaminated Simi Hills rocket lab would be a first for the surrounding community, where three housing projects are planned and demand is increasing for development.

The Boeing Co., which owns the field laboratory, is against the proposed requirement, charging it unfairly would stigmatize the surrounding property as presumably contaminated.

Supporters of required testing say it is the only way for future home buyers to know if they are moving onto tainted property.

The sampling proposal by Supervisor Linda Parks was prompted by discoveries of perchlorate, a byproduct of rocket fuel, first in an Ahmanson Ranch well and later in a planned Simi Valley development.

"It's kind of willy-nilly when they test now," Parks said. "To me, it makes a lot of sense when you have potential to expose people to these highly toxic contaminants that you check into it."

Her proposal would require developers planning projects on unincorporated land within two miles of the lab to test for perchlorate and trichloroethylene or TCE, two contaminants found in abundance at the lab and also detected on neighboring property.

The developer would need to collect five soil samples. If groundwater would be used in the subdivision, then two groundwater samples would be required. Groundwater would not be used in most of the subdivisions planned for the area.

Boeing officials argue that the testing requirement is unnecessary because state regulators order off-site soil and water sampling when warranted.

"The agencies do not, however, draw an arbitrary line around a site and require the site owner to sample everywhere within that area," Boeing environmental affairs director Steve Lafflam wrote in a letter to county officials.

However, Parks said, there has not been a consistent testing policy.

"The best thing that can happen is that they find no contamination," Parks said of the proposed testing. "This gives them that seal of approval."

Three projects are currently planned within a two-mile radius of the lab: The 150-home Dayton Canyon Estates in West Hills, which is in Los Angeles County and thus would not be affected by a Ventura County ordinance.

A 189-apartment complex proposed for the Santa Susana Knolls area of unincorporated Ventura County.

The 461-home subdivision approved by Simi Valley city officials in Runkle Canyon, where perchlorate was found in a groundwater well during an environmental investigation. A county ordinance would not apply to the site. Simi Valley planners, however, said they would like to require soil and groundwater testing for city projects within the two-mile radius.

In Los Angeles County, Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich asked for a review of the Ventura County testing proposal to see if Los Angeles County needs such a program. Los Angeles City Councilman Greig Smith, who represents Chatsworth and the communities just east of the lab, was in favor of testing when warranted.

"If there's a reason to believe that there's a problem at that specific location, then it makes sense. Otherwise I'm not in favor of blanket testing," Smith said.

Councilman Dennis Zine, who represents West Hills, which is also downhill from the lab, called the Parks proposal worth considering.

"I would always err on the side of caution when it comes to public safety and contamination," Zine said. "God forbid they develop that and they sign off on it and someone gets sick."

Rocketdyne Gets 5-Year Site Permit for Field Lab

Water Board Sets New Limits on Discharges
By Roberta Freeman
Ventura County Star
July 2, 2004

The regional water board approved a new five-year permit for the Boeing Co. Rocketdyne site Thursday that attempted to strike a compromise but pleased neither the aerospace giant nor its critics.

The new permit, issued by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board during a public hearing at Simi Valley City Hall, establishes chemical limits allowed in storm-water runoff and waste discharge from the Santa Susana Field Lab. The permit also mandates sampling locations and frequency of testing.

It adds 11 new testing locations closer to known source areas of radioactive and chemical contamination than previous sampling locations around the perimeter of the 2,800-acre site.

Boeing officials objected to the added testing, which they said was unnecessary and would cost the company an additional $3 million over the five-year span of the permit.

Steve Lafflam, Boeing's director for safety, health and environmental affairs, said he believed the water board's conditions for the permit were based on politics and emotion.

"We like sound science and technology," Lafflam said. "It's unfortunate that wasn't the basis of the permit."

At the urging of the water board, Boeing officials also agreed to set up a Web site to post their sampling information, and said they would have the site up and running in 120 days or by the first heavy rain. The board had asked Boeing to set up the Web site as a bridge to people in the community, many of whom mistrust the company.

Community and environmental groups also were critical of the new permit because an enforceable list of chemical limits in the old permit had been removed from the new one, and no enforceable limits were included in the 11 new sample locations.

Dan Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nuclear watchdog group, and co-chairman of SSFL Advisory Panel, a group that evaluates potential health risks from the site, argued that the more than 100 sources of contamination listed by the state Department of Toxic Substances Control at the site remained a public health hazard. He also added to the list the discovery of high levels of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen that is a byproduct of nuclear research and weapons testing at the lab.

"It is incomprehensible to assert there is no reasonable potential that contamination will migrate off the site," Hirsch said.

Water board officials said the chemicals were removed from the old list because no traces of them had been found leaving the site in storm water runoff within the past five years. Also, state laws prevented setting limits on the new sampling locations, they said, without previous historical data to justify them.

The new permit includes a clause that if at any time excessive contamination is found, a formal limit will be set and a $3,000 fine charged to Boeing per violation.

The water board honored a request by Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks and others during the hearing to keep trichloroethylene, a rocket-testing cleaning solvent, on the list of enforceable limits.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control estimates nearly a half-million gallons of the carcinogen lies deep within the bedrock and groundwater beneath the site.

After the meeting, water-board Chairman Francine Diamond said she was sympathetic to community concerns but believed the board had established as stringent a permit as possible.

"We pushed as far as we could under the law," Diamond said.

Water Board Grants Boeing (Discharge) Permits
One allows the Santa Susana lab to discharge excess water. The other approves a cleanup plan for pollution from fuel ingredient perchlorate.
*Discharge Permit Includes 11 New Monitoring Sites and Groundwater Sampling of Susana Knolls During Rainy Season; Also Trichloroethylene is Added to List of Contaminants that Boeing must Regularly Monitor.
By Amanda Covarrubias
Times Staff Writer
July 2, 2004
Despite protests from critics, a state regulatory agency approved a permit Thursday that will allow Boeing's rocket-testing lab in the Simi Hills to discharge excess water.

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board also approved a second permit allowing Boeing to use a biodegradable process to remove perchlorate contamination from soil at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. Perchlorate is a toxic solvent in rocket fuel.

The permits are the latest regulations placed on the 1,500-acre site, which has been mired in detection and cleanup efforts for two decades, a pace critics say is too slow and puts the public's health at risk.

The 56-year-old hilltop lab, where the federal government once conducted nuclear research and which experienced a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959, is above the heavily populated Simi and San Fernando valleys.

The water board's debate Thursday centered on trichloroethylene, a highly toxic solvent used to cool rocket engines. Officials estimate that as much as 520,000 gallons of it was discharged directly into the soil before the lab stopped using it in 1993.

Because of concerns raised by neighbors and local officials, the board Thursday added trichloroethylene to the list of contaminants that Boeing must regularly monitor. The move contradicted the agency's staff recommendation, which said trichloroethylene had not been detected in the last four to five years of testing and, therefore, was no longer required under state law to undergo the strictest monitoring.

"We pushed the limits as far as we could under the law in protecting the water quality at the Boeing site," board Chairman Francine Diamond said after the vote in Simi Valley. "We feel this is a more stringent permit than they had before."

The new discharge permit also sets a limit for perchlorate of up to 6 parts per billion in groundwater and orders Boeing to establish 11 new monitoring sites closer to some of the most contaminated areas of the lab. It increases the frequency of testing during discharge � which occurs in the rainy season when holding ponds overflow � at the two outfalls closest to neighboring communities.

As an added precaution, the agency agreed to conduct sampling during the rainy season in the neighborhood closest to the lab, Santa Susana Knolls.

Steve Lafflam, director of operations at the field lab, said adding trichloroethylene to the list of contaminants went too far.

"Boeing is by its nature a research and science organization and doesn't see the need for putting things in for political or emotional reasons," he said. "But we are going to comply with the permit and get on with it."

The other permit allows Boeing to clean up 8,500 cubic yards of soil contaminated with perchlorate. The soil will be treated with two types of chemicals that will cause the contaminant to biodegrade this summer.

Water Officials May Order Extra Field Lab Testing
By Kerry Cavanaugh
Daily News Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 29, 2004 - To address neighbors' concerns about potentially contaminated water leaving the Santa Susana Field Lab, regulators have proposed more frequent sampling of storm water and industrial runoff from the Simi Hills site.

Water board officials on Thursday will consider a proposed permit for the Field Lab, which community members worry will relax enforcement at the rocket engine testing site. Officials postponed the decision in May because of community concerns.

Neighbors fear that the permit would remove limits for some 25 pollutants, including some that are known contaminants at the site but haven't been found in groundwater recently.

Water board staffers said this week that their hands are tied because of a state policy that dictates that if a pollutant hasn't been found in surface water for five years the limit must be removed from the permit.

However, because of the community concern, the staff is now recommending testing for contaminants without limits every time water is discharged, instead of once a year as originally proposed, said Blythe Ponek-Bacharowski, who heads the water board's permit section.

The permit sets testing schedules and contamination limits for storm water and industrial runoff that drains from the Simi Hills site to the Los Angeles River and Arroyo Simi.

The Regional Water Quality Control Board will meet at 9 a.m. Thursday, 01 July, 2004, at the Simi Valley City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road.

Revised Permits Considered for Rocketdyne
Water Board to Conduct Public Hearing on Runoff Issue
By Roberta Freeman
Ventura County Star
June 29, 2004

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a public hearing Thursday to consider renewing revised storm-water runoff and waste discharge permits for the Boeing Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab in the hills south of Simi Valley.

In May, the board declined to renew earlier versions of the permit, which had been under review for almost a year. Members expressed concerns about contamination at the site and said they needed more time to consider the public health concerns expressed by residents.

Blythe Bacharowski, chief of the water board's watershed regulatory section, said Monday that further investigation of the site since that meeting indicated few changes to the permit proposed in May were warranted.

In addition to calling for Rocketdyne to add 11 testing locations originally proposed, the revised permit requires waste discharges be tested at each release. If after two years no contamination is present, Rocketdyne will be required to check quarterly.

"There was no justification for making any other changes," Bacharowski said.

Though residents and organizations long concerned about the lab's cleanup applauded the additional requirements, they remained unhappy the new locations did not have enforceable limits for toxic materials restricted in the old permit.

Dan Hirsch, co-chairman of the Santa Susana Workgroup, a citizens' committee that has monitored the lab's cleanup for more than a decade, said he was concerned that without enforceable limits and fines attached, surrounding communities would be at increased risk from contamination leaving the site via storm water.

Water board officials said they would not set limits on new testing locations without previous historical data to support such a decision.

The board also asked Boeing to try to build up trust with the surrounding communities and set up a Web site to post updates about ongoing cleanup at the site. Boeing officials were unavailable for comment Monday regarding that issue.

Riddled with contamination in the soil and groundwater from decades of nuclear research and rocket testing, the site has been undergoing a $150 million cleanup since 1989.

The board also questioned why after 20 years of testing since radioactive and chemical contamination was first discovered at Rocketdyne, state agencies still don't know for sure if contamination is leaving the Field Lab by way of deep groundwater into nearby areas.

Seepage of Radiation from Rocketdyne Site not Likely Says Boeing Officials

By Zeke Barlow

Ventura County Star Staff Writer

June 4, 2004

Officials from the Boeing Co. and the Department of Energy said Thursday that water surrounding the Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab was not contaminated despite the recent discovery of radioactive contaminants in a well at the lab site in the hills east of Simi Valley.

However, some in the audience questioned the motives of the informational meeting and the facts presented by various groups who said the public is safe from radiation.

"It was a dog-and-pony show," said Dan Hirsch, co-chairman of the Santa Susana Field Lab Workgroup, an activist organization. "It's a discredit to our government. We shouldn't participate in this propaganda."

Officials from Boeing and the Department of Energy said that though a radioactive byproduct of nuclear research and weapons testing was found in a well in March the chance of the substance, called tritium, seeping into nearby water sources is slim.

Boeing division director Steve Lafflam said that for 20 years beginning in the 1950s, employees at the nuclear testing facility drank the water from wells near where the tritium was later found.

After employees complained about rusty water in the early 1970s, water was pumped in from an outside source, but water from the wells was still used in bathrooms, fire systems and landscaping, Lafflam said.

Bonnie Klea, a West Hills resident who believes she got bladder cancer from radioactive exposure while working as a secretary at Rocketdyne, attended Thursday's meeting at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center.

There was about one official for every two of the 60 citizens in attendance.

"I think it's a joke," she said of the elaborate meeting that had explanatory posters around the room reading "Cycle of a nuclear reactor facility," and "Potential pathways to the environment."

Klea wondered why tritium was found only decades after the site was in operation.

"They found it so late and it's been there all this time," she said "They denied it at first, and now they find it? I think there is a lot more to find out."

Hirsch said he has documents proving that the Department of Energy knew tritium was present at the site in the early 1990s but did nothing about it.

Many in the crowd wondered if perchlorate, a radiation byproduct, has been found around Simi Valley, then why couldn't the tritium also travel outside the Santa Susana Field Lab.

Boeing officials defended that statement by saying the perchlorate could have come from a number of sources -- including police flares -- and that the hydrological landscape underneath the nuclear testing site would have prevented leeching.

Hirsch later said both those claims were bogus.

Boeing officials said the residents are safe.

"I can appreciate the concern of the residents," said Lafflam. "There is no exposure for them or their children. Their water is safe."

Boeing, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy have spent about $200 million in testing and cleanup of the site, Lafflam said. However, the cleanup is still in "its infancy" he said.

A plan to clean up the site still needs to be approved by the state before final cleanup can begin. Lafflam said he doesn't expect a plan to be finalized until about 2008, when another $100 million will be spent in cleanup.

Discovery of Radioactivity Stirs Fears About Cleanup

By Roberta Freeman Star Staff
May 21, 2004
High levels of a radioactive contaminant have been discovered in groundwater from a trio of new wells installed at Boeing Co.'s Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab, where federal officials said scientists once experimented with the notion of sending nuclear reactors into space.

U.S. Department of Energy officials said Thursday that tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen that is a byproduct of nuclear research and weapons testing, was discovered two months ago at a concentration level of 80,000 picocuries per liter in one of the three wells.

Although the wells are not used for drinking water, the finding exceeds the Environmental Protection Agency's standard for drinking water of 20,000 picocuries per liter.

Critics of Boeing and the Department of Energy's cleanup efforts of former nuclear activity at the site said the discovery is another example of sloppy testing and inadequate assessment of its potential environmental dangers.

"This is a really big deal," said Dan Hirsch, co-chairman of the Santa Susana Field Lab Workgroup, a citizen and government committee that has monitored the lab's cleanup for more than a decade.

"If after 12 years they have just now found this, what else haven't they found?" he said. "How much hotter is it elsewhere?"

Tritium has a half-life of 12.3 years, which means its radioactivity decreases by half in that time. Hirsch noted that the contamination levels 10 years ago would have been 160,000 picocuries and 20 years ago, 320,000 picocuries.

Tritium joins perchlorate and trichloroethylene as chemical and radiation contaminants of concern at the site and in surrounding communities in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.

The state is investigating whether the lab is the source of perchlorate in Simi Valley groundwater. Hirsch said tritium travels faster in water than does perchlorate.

Majelle Lee, program manager at Boeing in charge of the cleanup of the Department of Energy's area, said that until recently, testing had been concentrated around the lab boundaries to make sure contamination was not migrating far from the site.

In the early 1990s, tritium was found at the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a Jewish retreat and camp, but the levels there were below the EPA's health-threat level.

Satisfied that no contamination has been leaving the site, Lee said, tests began closer to the source areas.

"We have been looking too far away," she said.

The Department of Energy, which funded nuclear activities at the lab from the 1950s through 1980s, has been engaged in a cleanup of extensive chemical and radioactive contamination since the early 1990s, and to a lesser degree since the 1970s.

Energy officials had planned to finish the work by 2007 and clear the area for unrestricted use, possibly including housing. Officials said they were uncertain if the tritium findings would affect those plans but the testing would continue for now.

The EPA, however, issued a statement recently that the Department of Energy's plan to clean up the site was inadequate. The site would be OK for limited day hiking, the EPA said, but even picnicking should be restricted. However, the EPA has no jurisdiction over the Department of Energy.

During the lab's peak activity, spanning the 1940s to the 1960s, the site contained 10 nuclear reactors, a hot lab where irradiated reactor fuel was supplied from around the country and cut apart for the first stages of reprocessing, plutonium fuel fabrication, and a sodium burn pit where radioactive reactor components were burned in open-air pools.

A nuclear reactor there suffered a meltdown in 1959. In 1994, two veteran scientists were killed during an explosion while dumping waste materials. Two years later, Rocketdyne's then-parent company, Rockwell International Corp., pleaded guilty to three felony counts of mishandling hazardous chemicals in the same incident and paid a $6.5 million fine.

The Department of Energy will hold a community meeting at 6:30 p.m. June 3 to explain the results of the groundwater sampling. The meeting will be at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center, 5005 Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley.

Tritium facts

What it is:

A radioactive byproduct used as a component in triggering thermonuclear weapons and a byproduct of nuclear reactors used to produce electricity.

Also used in luminescent devices such as exit signs, aircraft dials and gauges, luminous paints and wristwatches. Used in biochemical research.

How it enters environment:

May be released as steam or into underlying soil and groundwater from nuclear reactors and government weapons production plants.

In the mid-1950s and early 1960s, tritium was dispersed during aboveground testing of nuclear weapons. The quantity of tritium in the atmosphere from weapons testing peaked in 1963 and has been decreasing since.

Occurs naturally at very low concentrations in the environment in water, soil and rock.

How it enters the body:

Primarily enters the body when people swallow tritiated water. People may also inhale tritium as gas in the air, and absorb it through skin.

People who live near and work in federal weapons facilities, nuclear fuel cycle facilities or research laboratories may have increased exposure.

Health effects:

Exposure increases the risk of developing cancer. However, tritium is one of the least dangerous radionuclides because it emits a very weak radiation and leaves the body relatively quickly.

Since tritium is almost always found in water, it goes directly into soft tissues and organs.

Rocketdyne Well Shows Radioactivity
By Amanda Covarrubias
Times Staff Writer
May 21, 2004
Federal officials have found high levels of radioactivity in deep groundwater at Boeing's Rocketdyne field lab near Simi Valley, the site of a partial nuclear meltdown 45 years ago.

Although the contamination poses no risk to the public or the environment, officials said, the discovery of tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen, warrants further testing to determine the scope of the problem.

The finding is significant because it could affect how the 2,700-acre site perched on a plateau in the Simi Hills is used in the future. Boeing Co., which owns the lab, wants to clean up the property and sell it, possibly to a housing developer.

"It means there's more that needs to be done," said Majelle Lee, a Boeing program manager. "They'll have to drill more wells and do more testing."

Groundwater samples taken in March by the U.S. Department of Energy showed tritium at 80,000 picocuries per liter, or four times the national drinking water limit. The contamination was caused by nuclear research conducted at the Santa Susana Field Lab.

But Energy Department Project Manager Mike Lopez said there was no reason to believe that the tritium, found in a deep well drilled into the bedrock, would harm people, animals or plants. He said the radioactive material had a half-life of 12 years, which means it would degrade to safe standards in 25 years.

Working on behalf of the federal government, Rocketdyne conducted nuclear testing on a 90-acre portion of the field lab from the 1950s to the late 1980s. The work included operation of small nuclear test reactors and recycling of spent fuel from nuclear fuel rods.

Although it was not widely publicized until 20 years later, a test reactor suffered a partial meltdown at the site in 1959. The company said later that there had been no danger to the public or workers.

But disclosure in 1989 of lingering, low-level contamination from past nuclear projects sparked a furor and led Rocketdyne to halt nuclear research there the next year. However, rocket engine testing is still conducted at the lab site.

The Energy Department-funded cleanup of buildings, soil and groundwater tainted by chemical and radioactive contamination is continuing in the energy research area.

Tritium was found in 1991 at the Brandeis Bardin Institute, a Jewish retreat on the lab's western edge. The highest level was 5,400 picocuries per liter, well below the EPA's limit of 20,000.

Water at Rocketdyne is not used for drinking, but the EPA standard serves as a comparison.

The contaminant was discovered again in 1993 in soil samples from Brandeis Bardin but at levels considered safe.

Boeing officials said they were not surprised by the latest finding because the samples were taken from deep wells close to where scientists once conducted nuclear research.

"This discovery supports the model that says the contamination doesn't move far from the source," Lee said. "The off-site samples have all been clean. We're finding the highest concentrations at the source."

Lopez said the public had no reason to fear that the tritium-tainted water would travel downhill from the lab to residential areas below, because the water was trapped deep in the rock under the lab. "It isn't going anywhere," he said.

However, anti-nuclear activist Dan Hirsch said he found it hard to believe that radioactive material was showing up at unsafe levels only now, considering that the cleanup had been going on for 15 years.

"It makes you wonder what else they've been missing," said Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap.

The Energy Department will hold a public meeting Thursday in Simi Valley to discuss the findings. It will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center, 5005 Los Angeles Ave.

'Hot' Water at Santa Susana
High-Level Radioactivity Found in Groundwater at Rocketdyne Lab
By Kerry Cavanaugh
Daily News Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 19, 2004 - High levels of radioactivity were found for the first time in groundwater at the Santa Susana Field Lab where nuclear reactors were tested beginning in the late 1940s, federal officials said Wednesday.

Officials said the contamination does not pose a risk to the public or neighbors of the facility located in the Simi Hills above Chatsworth, but longtime critics of the operations and Department of Energy cleanup efforts questioned why the radioactive material was only showing up now after a 15-year cleanup effort.

The Daily News first disclosed in 1989 that a DOE survey had found massive radioactive and chemical contamination problems at the lab, triggering the effort.

'They have told us over and over and over again that they have no radioactivity showing up above a trip level at the site," said Dan Hirsch, president of the nuclear watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap. "(The public) should be concerned about what else may be there that Boeing and the Department of Energy hasn't found yet."

Groundwater samples taken in March show tritium at 80,000 picocuries per liter, or four times the national drinking water limit. The contamination was caused by nuclear research conducted at the lab.

"We have not seen levels of tritium at these concentrations before," said Mike Lopez, DOE project manager. The federal government funded nuclear testing at the lab, which was run by Rocketdyne, now a division of Boeing, from the 1950s through the 1980s and is now cleaning the property for future uses, which could include homes.

"We've been reviewing our data to see if there are any gaps in what we know. We found tritium. To me, it shows our process is working," Lopez said.

Tritium, a radioactive form of hydrogen with a half-life of 12 years, will degrade and meet drinking water standards in 25 years. It has been found before at low levels around the lab.

In 1991, it was found at the Brandeis Bardin Institute, a Jewish retreat and camp on the Simi Valley edge of the lab. The highest level was 5,400 picocuries per liter, well below the EPA's limit of 20,000 picocuries per liter.

In 1993, lab officials found elevated levels of tritium, along with strontium 90, cesium 137 and plutonium 238, in soil samples from Brandies Bardin taken near the lab property line. The readings again were considered low enough to not pose a health threat.

Officials with the Boeing Co., which owns the lab, said the tritium findings should be no surprise.

Earlier tests were conducted at the edge of the lab property or on neighboring property and the results always showed low levels of tritium.

The higher tritium levels were found after drilling three new wells near the old nuclear reactor site. One well showed tritium and two wells showed hits of chemical contamination, including trichloroethylene at 15 times the national limit.

"We're more likely to find higher concentrations closer to the source," said Majelle Lee with Boeing. "Again there is not an exposure to people. It's not used as drinking water and there's additional work to be done to create the characterization of it."

The Department of Energy will hold a public meeting to discuss the tritium findings at 6:30 p.m. June 3 at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center at 5005 Los Angeles Ave., Simi Valley.

Decision on (SSFL) Lab Wastewater Delayed
Agency holds off on a permit, saying it wants more time to ensure pollutants from the field lab near Simi Valley don't reach streams.

By Amanda Covarrubias
Times Staff Writer
May 7, 2004

Declaring it needed more time to address public safety concerns, a state regulatory agency postponed a decision Thursday to renew Boeing's permit to discharge wastewater from its rocket-testing lab near Simi Valley.

After listening to more than an hour of emotional testimony from residents living near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board said it wanted to determine what more could be done to ensure pollutants from the rocket-testing center did not spread to creeks and streams below.

In addition to the public testimony, several public agencies and officials lodged concerns with the panel, including the Los Angeles city attorney's office and the office of state Rep. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara).

"We listen very, very seriously to the public," board Chairman Francine Diamond said after the hearing. "We are supposed to be protecting water quality, and they have a right to be heard when they think their health is being compromised. Our number one concern is public health."

Although the discharge permit is limited to regulating surface water runoff, Diamond said she wanted to explore whether the board could take more aggressive steps to control groundwater contamination as well.

"We want it to be pushed to be as strong as possible and see if we have any more authority to deal with this problem," Diamond said. "This is a potentially serious public health issue."

The postponement was viewed as a victory by a core group of community members who for years have urged public officials and regulators to take a more proactive approach in dealing with cleanup of the field lab, the site of rocket-engine testing for decades and once home to a government nuclear-research center. A partial nuclear meltdown occurred in 1959 at a reactor operated there by the U.S. Department of Energy.

"I guess we had an impact," said Dawn Kowalski, who has lived in the shadow of the hilltop lab for 25 years.

"I raised two children there, who played in the streams," Kowalski told the panelists, who listened attentively. "What price do we put on a child's life that's innocently looking for tadpoles in a stream?

"These guys contaminated and my children played in those creeks. What good are you if you aren't willing to stand up and enforce the rules that these agencies clean up to the highest standards?"

Rocketdyne director Steve Lafflam said Boeing was doing everything possible to clean up the site to state and federal standards, and he objected to a requirement under the new permit that the company add 11 new testing sites on the premises to monitor water contamination.

"The permit should complement not complicate the cleanup," Lafflam told the board.

Among the numerous toxic substances found in the soil and in groundwater trapped in the bedrock at Rocketdyne are trichloroethylene and perchlorate, which has been detected in non-drinking wells in Simi Valley. No one has been able to prove Rocketdyne was the source of perchlorate in those wells.

Diamond said the permit issue would return to the board in two or three months.

More (SSFL) Contaminant Testing Proposed

A Ventura County supervisor calls for an extra check by builders for sites around the Rocketdyne field lab near Simi Valley.

By Catherine Saillant
Times Staff Writer
May 6, 2004

Development around Boeing's Rocketdyne test facility near Simi Valley would be subject to another layer of environmental review if Ventura County supervisors move forward with a proposal by board member Linda Parks.

The Board of Supervisors this week stopped short of endorsing Parks' proposed guidelines outright, instead directing county staff members to report back on whether the guidelines can be implemented without undue cost to individual landowners.

Under the proposal, developers would be required to test soil and water for the contaminants perchlorate and trichloroethylene before they could build. Both substances are believed to be harmful at high levels.

The requirement would be in addition to environmental reviews already mandated by state and federal laws.

Parks said an additional step was necessary because testing for the contaminants was too spotty under current guidelines.

"Let's look to see if it's there, and if it's there to the extent it exceeds our health goals, then consider mitigation," Parks told her board colleagues Tuesday. "I really do consider this a no-brainer."

But supervisors Judy Mikels and Kathy Long objected to any new guidelines, saying they are unnecessary because the state already frequently tests for contaminants in the area.

Approving the new guidelines would be tantamount to declaring that testing at the Rocketdyne facility has polluted off-site lands, a finding that has not been proven, Mikels said.

"Nothing has been proven by the regulatory agencies, and to give validity to the questions and concerns of people other than our state regulatory agencies and their experts is not a good way to go," said Mikels, whose district includes the Rocketdyne site.

From the 1950s through the 1980s, Rocketdyne conducted nuclear research on a portion of the field laboratory.

Perchlorate, an inorganic salt that can be harmful at excessive levels, was used in rocket tests and is also found in fireworks, road flares, air-bag triggers and other explosives.

The state recently set a safe drinking-water level for perchlorate at 6 parts per billion � about the same as 6 drops of water in a pool. Perchlorate at 28 ppb was found a year ago in a well at Ahmanson Ranch, but the lab that conducted the test has since deemed it incorrect, Mikels said.

Trichloroethylene, a solvent also used at Rocketdyne, has been detected on a portion of the lab and is being cleaned up, said Art Lennox, an environmental specialist hired by Boeing.

A handful of property owners who could be affected by Parks' proposal urged supervisors to reject it. Lands are already sufficiently monitored by county, state and federal agencies, said Wayne Fishbeck, who owns property in Box Canyon.

"This is just bad public policy," Fishbeck said. "There are no conclusive tests to show contamination�. It would be bad precedent to impose [guidelines] on things that are suspected."

Fishbeck and others said they were also worried about the costs of additional testing, estimated at $250 to $3,000. Fishbeck said he believed the costs would be significantly higher.

Two board members joined Parks in asking county environmental staff members to prepare a report.

Supervisor John Flynn and board Chairman Steve Bennett said there would be no harm in getting more information before making a final decision.

"It doesn't seem very onerous," Flynn said. "Why wouldn't you want to do this? I think this is really necessary and I hope staff comes back with recommendations to implement this process."

Water Permit to be Pondered for Lab Site (SSFL)
Neither Officials, Activists Likely to be Happy with Rules

By Kerry Cavanaugh
Los Angeles Daily News Staff Writer

Tuesday, May 04, 2004 - Water regulators will consider Thursday issuing a new water permit for the Santa Susana Field Lab -- a document critics claim will be too lax and company officials say will be too stringent.

Lab watchdogs and Los Angeles City water quality officials have urged more frequent groundwater testing for various contaminants at the hilltop site, where workers once used toxic cleaners to wash down rocket engines after testing.

Much of the industrial runoff and storm water flows toward the Bell Canyon area and into the Los Angeles River. Storm water also runs toward the Arroyo Simi.

But officials with Boeing Co. said Tuesday the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has added new -- and, they believe, unnecessary -- water tests that will cost the lab operator an additional $1 million a year. The board also proposes adding 10 sampling locations to the current seven.

"Why look for things that you've never seen and you have lots and lots of sampling on?" asked Steve Lafflam, division director of Safety, Health and Environmental Affairs.

Water board officials said they added the sampling sites to ensure more complete readings on industrial wastewater as it leaves the lab property.

"We wanted to make sure pollutants weren't just going back to the channel and back to the groundwater," said Blythe Ponek-Bacharowksi, chief of the board's watershed regulatory section.

But critics have said the water board is not being protective enough because it has proposed lifting some limits and reducing testing frequency from quarterly to annually for some of the dozen or so contaminants known to have been used at the lab.

That includes removing limits for trichloroethylene, a highly toxic solvent, which has been found at 2,000 times the limit in groundwater at the site and is now being pumped and treated.

Ponek-Bacharowksi said the water board can monitor but can't legally set contamination limits if the contaminant hasn't been found in creeks and runoff for years, as is the case with TCE. Critics, however, disagree.

"This is not a theoretical issue. They used these materials, they spilled them on site. I don't know how they can argue there's not reasonable potential they'll move off-site," argued Dan Hirsch, lab watchdog with the Committee to Bridge the Gap.

IF YOU GO

The Regional Water Quality Control Board will hold a public hearing on a water permit for the Santa Susana Field Lab at 9 a.m. Thursday at Simi Valley City Hall, 2929 Tapo Canyon Road. For information, visit www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb4/index.html

State Orders Testing of Simi/Chatsworth Ground Water

Quality Control Board Seeks Perchlorate Information From Boeing, Simi Valley Landfill, Ahmanson Developer

By Brad Smith, [email protected]
January 28, 2003

State water-quality officials have ordered extensive research and testing of ground water in eastern Ventura County to determine the source and extent of chemical pollution found in wells in Simi Valley and adjacent to the Ahmanson Ranch project near Oak Park.

In the orders, sent to the Boeing Co., the Simi Valley Landfill and Ahmanson developer Washington Mutual, the regional Water Quality Control Board asked for a series of water tests and reviews of records relating to perchlorate, a chemical compound linked to thyroid cancer.

The research is a required preliminary to a possible cleanup and abatement order, or CAO, that could be applied to any or all of the three companies, officials said.

"At this point, we are assessing the need to issue a CAO to Ahmanson Land Co. or to the other two parties," water board director Dennis Dickerson wrote in a Jan. 7 letter to state legislators.

"The appropriateness of a CAO will be evaluated as part of the information gathering process and the level of response and cooperation we receive ... a CAO can be used as an appropriate enforcement tool."

Such an order would require the company or companies found responsible for the contamination to clean it up. The costs and time requirements of such a clean-up are unknown, officials said.

Perchlorate has been widely used in industrial processes, especially the testing and development of solid-fuel rockets, explosives and other ordnance. Last year, the chemical was found at a level seven times the state standard in a well adjacent to the 2,800-acre Ahmanson property.

The water was slated for irrigation uses in the planned 3,050-home development, although in December, Ventura County officials directed the well should be destroyed.

That well is to be re-tested under the supervision of the Water Quality board, officials said.

Perchlorate is found at Boeing's Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the Simi Hills, where state and federal agencies are overseeing a lengthy cleanup process.

It has also been found off the lab site, in wells in Simi Valley and Chatsworth.

"Boeing is a known source, and Ahmanson had a detection, so they were also sent a letter," said David Bacharowski, with the water agency. "We saw the need to get some additional samples."

Perchlorate contamination is slated to be discussed at a public hearing set for 7 p.m. Feb. 10 at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd., in Thousand Oaks.

State officials expect to set a maximum level for exposure to perchlorate by January 2004. Seattle-based Washington Mutual has said it hopes to break ground on the Ahmanson Ranch project this year.

Officials with all three companies said Monday they expect to meet deadlines for coming back to the water agency with information.

"We intend to cooperate fully with the regional board and are in the process of preparing a response to their letter," Washington Mutual Vice President Tim McGarry said.

Company officials with Houston-based Waste Management Inc., which runs the Simi Valley Landfill, said the facility has not had any problems with perchlorate.

"We did a sampling last week, and we expect to get the results back next," landfill manager Scott Tignac said. "But we're required to monitor the ground water underneath the site, and we've never had a hit."

The state's deadlines range from next Monday to Feb. 28.

"Our technical folks are reviewing more than 1,600 soil, surface and ground-water reports, and they are reviewing a comprehensive report we will be submitting to the water board, probably on Monday," said Blythe Jameson, with Chicago-based Boeing's Rocketdyne division.

"This data will demonstrate that Rocketdyne is not the source of any of the perchlorate contamination found at Ahmanson or in Simi Valley."

Copyright 2003, Ventura County Star. All Rights Reserved.

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Madeline Felkins Hotsheets Rocketdyne/Boeing Contamination News
Felkins ANTHOLOGY and HOTSHEETS *Copyright Madeline L. Felkins 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 All Rights *Madelinefelkins.com *Hotsheets.org

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