Bill seeks to help stricken Rocketdyne field lab workers

U.S. Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) has introduced a bill to speed up federal benefit payments to former workers of Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory who can link their illnesses to their jobs at the onetime Department of Energy facility.

In the last seven years, 355 former employees have filed 677 benefit claims against the DOE, but only 56 claims have been paid, according to Gallegly’s office. The claims were filed under the Energy Employees Illness Compensation Act.

The DOE and other federal agencies conducted nuclear research over four decades before ceasing operations on a 290-acre portion of the 2,800-acre hilltop lab in the late 1980s.

The facility is in the Santa Susana Mountains between Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley.

“Rocketdyne workers were involved in critical defense work during the Cold War and, in the process, some of them were exposed to some deadly materials,” Gallegly said in a written statement. “It is only right to compensate them for the suffering brought on by their dedication and sacrifice to our country’s defense.”

If Gallegly’s bill is passed, employees who worked at the lab at least one year and contracted specified cancers from exposure to radiation before Jan. 1, 2006, would automatically receive a lump-sum payment of at least $150,000, plus medical benefits. Those exposed to toxic chemicals, solvents, acids and metals would get up to $250,000 plus medical benefits.

Anti-nuclear activists applauded Gallegly’s proposal.

“I think it’s great,” said Dan Hirsch, co-chairman of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory Working Group, established with Gallegly’s help in 1989. “These workers and their families have been injured twice by the government. First, by contracting cancer working for the government, and then a second time being chewed up by a very slow processing of their compensation claims. This will hopefully speed that up and provide some measure of justice.”

The lab, now owned by Boeing Corp., is undergoing a multimillion-dollar cleanup. Much of the site for years was used as a rocket engine testing facility. Last week, a federal judge ruled that a more thorough review of cleanup operations was needed.

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greg.griggs@latimes.com