By Roberta Freeman, Ventura County Star Staff
February 7, 2004

State officials have asked those at Boeing Rocketdyne investigating contamination at the Santa Susana Field Lab above Simi Valley to do a more thorough investigation and provide more detailed documentation of the work being done.

The Department of Toxic Substances Control sent Boeing Rocketdyne three letters this week evaluating the work done so far and giving recommendations about how to do it better.

Ron Baker, spokesman for Toxic Substances Control, said he has been told Boeing Rocketdyne officials have been very reasonable in their dealings with the agency.

"But some of the work doesn't meet up with what we have been asking them to do," Baker said.

In correspondence totaling more than 30 pages, state officials told Boeing Rocketdyne officials to clarify how they plan to identify contamination at the field lab and ways that potentially toxic substances might migrate to the surrounding communities.

They also have asked for a risk assessment of potential health hazards at the site when the work is done.

Boeing Rocketdyne spokesman Dan Beck said he believed the company had been meeting state requirements for the investigation and cleanup of the Field Lab.

"We were surprised by what the DTSC had to say in their correspondence," Beck said.

Boeing Rocketdyne officials in charge of cleanup at the field lab were in Sacramento on Friday to meet with state officials for clarification and to attempt to reach an agreement on how to move forward, he said.

"If a case can be made that we need to do more sampling, we will work with them to revise the work plan," Beck said.

State officials continue to reject Boeing Rocketdyne's argument that earthquake faults and fine-grained sediments prevent contamination from migrating beneath the surface. They also said computer simulations Boeing Rocketdyne used to back up its theory were inadequate.

Instead, they told Boeing Rocketdyne officials to step up their investigative efforts by drilling new groundwater wells using updated technology, and to collect actual soil samples.

"Computer-generated simulations and conclusions based on these simulations should not be substituted for collection of field data," one letter from senior geologist Gerard Abrams said in part.

Boeing Rocketdyne officials have argued against costly measures to extract groundwater contaminants, including the highly carcinogenic solvent trichloroethylene, suggesting the chemicals are not migrating far from the site and would evaporate over hundreds of years anyway.

State officials say such assumptions can be made only with actual water and soil samples.

Members of the public who have been monitoring cleanup of the site for more than a decade are frustrated by the slow resolution of concerns at the site.

"I'm deeply troubled by the revelation that Boeing Rocketdyne concedes that TCE will be leaking for hundreds of years and is asking for the state to permit it to take no action to clean it up," said Dan Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, an anti-nuclear group.

Baker said the agency is looking for an "umbrella assessment" of potential hazards to human health at the site once the work is done.

The issue will eventually force Boeing Rocketdyne to publicly declare what future land use for the site will be.

Boeing Rocketdyne officials have conceded they might stop rocket testing, research and other work at the site by 2007 or 2008 but have wanted to keep their options open.

Rumors for future uses of the site have ranged from residential development to open space.

"A lot of people will be involved in that decision -- Boeing, the Department of Energy, NASA," Beck said.

Copyright 2004, Ventura County Star. All Rights Reserved.

More Information