EPA Reports No Imminent Hazards at Rockwell Lab

The federal Environmental Protection Agency, in a report Tuesday to Rep. Elton Gallegly, said its review of environmental data on the Santa Susana Field Laboratory shows that the sprawling test site west of Chatsworth “does not represent an imminent health or environmental hazard.”

The formal conclusion, which echoed prior comments by the EPA, was seen as vindication by officials of Rockwell International, the site operator, and the U.S. Department of Energy, which has contracted for work that has resulted in chemical and radioactive contamination.

“No surprises,” said Pat Coulter, spokesman for Rockwell’s Rocketdyne division, which runs the lab in the Simi Hills in eastern Ventura County.

Dick Nolan, special assistant to the manager of DOE’s San Francisco operations office, also said he was not surprised that EPA’s “independent look” turned up no evidence of immediate hazards. “That’s what we’ve maintained all along.”

Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), who had pressured the EPA to review environmental conditions and regulation of the site, said the agency fortunately had found no cause for alarm. “I think so many people, fairly or otherwise, were concerned about DOE doing the investigating because some felt that perhaps they might have a conflict of interest,” Gallegly said.

EPA Takes Own Tests

Yet despite its general conclusion, the 37-page report did not give the 2,668-acre research site a clean bill of health. The report said agency inspectors three weeks ago took their own samples of soil, stream sediments and ground water to verify pollution data compiled over the years by Rockwell, which took virtually all the measurements on which the EPA’s report was based. The EPA said results of its own tests will not be available until later this month.

The report also called for better environmental monitoring, citing basic gaps in data for the part of the Santa Susana site devoted to research for DOE.

Among other things, the EPA said it recommended that air samplers be installed in two areas of low soil contamination to test for radioactivity in windblown dust. A Rockwell official said the samplers will soon be hooked up.

The report also noted that Rocketdyne two weeks ago began drilling 18 new wells to improve ground-water testing in the DOE portion of the site.

Delivery of the report coincided with Tuesday’s announcement by Energy Secretary James Watkins of a five-year, $19.5-billion plan to start the cleanup of present and former DOE energy research and weapons sites, ranging from such highly contaminated plants as Hanford in Washington state and Rocky Flats in Colorado to less polluted sites such as Santa Susana. Watkins, appointed by President Bush, has been openly critical of past environmental management of DOE sites.

The EPA report gave an overview of regulatory responsibilities and pollution problems throughout Santa Susana--not just in the 290 acres reserved for DOE work.

The DOE area includes a “hot cell” for decladding nuclear fuel, which involves stripping the metal shielding and packaging plutonium and other radioactive materials for reuse in energy or weapons work at government reservations. No decladding has been done there since 1986 but the work could resume in the future.

Last Reactor Shut Down

Since the mid-1950s, 15 nuclear reactors, mostly small test plants, have also operated at the site, with the last one shut down in the early ‘80s. Decommissioning and decontamination followed several of these projects. And on a number of occasions--most recently last month, according to the EPA report--pockets of radioactive soil contamination have been cleaned up. But areas of contaminated buildings and soil remain.

The report noted that tiny traces of toluene, a chemical in gasoline, were found last year in water samples taken from one off-site well and an off-site spring. But it was impossible to say if the chemical had seeped from the lab, according to the report.

“The potential of ground-water chemical contamination to migrate off-site cannot be confirmed with the present available data,” the report said. Rocketdyne has repeatedly maintained that there is no evidence of off-site pollution.

The report also said there is no evidence of radioactive soil contamination outside the DOE portion of the complex.

Much of the non-DOE portion of the test lab is devoted to rocket testing for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which owns 450 acres of the site.

Over the years, heavy use and poor control of solvents used to rinse rocket engines has resulted in the highest levels of ground-water pollution found at the property. According to the EPA report, well tests last year produced one trichloroethylene, or TCE, reading of 49,900 parts per billion, and a peak methylene chloride reading of 33,000 p.p.b. There are no public drinking water supplies in the area.

Rocketdyne is treating about 400,000 gallons per day of polluted ground water in the non-DOE portion of the lab and expects to more than double the treatment capacity soon.

Well-Publicized Problems

Ground-water problems outside the DOE area had been well-publicized, but a spring DOE report on contamination in the DOE area raised a furor, prompting Gallegly to call for the EPA’s involvement.

Although the report suggested pollution at the site was relatively mild, it made it clear that more nuclear work had taken place at the lab than the public knew. Regarding radiation safety, DOE had largely functioned both as customer and regulator under provisions of the Atomic Energy Act. Some state regulators who were working with Rockwell to solve ground-water problems in the NASA area said they never knew the extent of atomic research on the other side of the hill.

In response, Gallegly asked the EPA to chair a task force of health and environmental agencies to assure that all potential problems were addressed.

In its report Tuesday, the EPA said it will continue to chair the task force “to assure coordinated management of this site.” The EPA said the interagency group will meet again in September.