Rockwell to Pay $280,000 for Violations : Health: The fine is to settle complaints about hazardous waste problems at the Santa Susana laboratory and Canoga Park plant.

Rockwell International has agreed to pay a $280,000 fine to settle a state lawsuit alleging hazardous waste violations at the firm’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory southeast of Simi Valley and its main Canoga Park plant, according to documents filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The agreement was filed simultaneously with a 31-page complaint in which the attorney general’s office, on behalf of the California Department of Health Services, accused Rockwell of 27 violations of state and federal hazardous waste rules at the two sites. The sites are operated by Rockwell’s Rocketdyne division.

Each violation, if proven in a trial, could have brought a penalty of up to $25,000.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Ken Alex characterized the $280,000 settlement as “a significant and substantial fine,” but said it was “not in the top 10 of fines” meted out by the state for hazardous waste violations.

“The conduct that was alleged and found . . . was also not in the top 10,” Alex said, adding that Rockwell had been guilty of “serious but not extreme violations.”

In agreeing to the settlement, Rockwell did not admit guilt and said in a prepared statement that “a number of allegations in the complaint were without legal merit.”

“None of the counts constituted any type of danger whatsoever to employees or the neighboring communities,” said Jennifer Crone, manager of water and waste programs for Rocketdyne. “We’re settling with the department, without guilt, just to settle the thing and put it behind us,” she said.

However, the agreement allows state officials to treat any future violations by Rockwell as repeat offenses for the purpose of assessing penalties.

The lawsuit was long expected. It was based on the results of a series of inspections conducted between June, 1989, and January, 1990. Some of the findings were publicized previously.

Most of the charges did not involve waste releases but rather Rockwell’s failure to obtain state permits for various waste storage, treatment and disposal operations.

Alex said these were “serious violations” because “the permit is how the department controls the hazardous waste world, in essence.” He said nonpermissible waste operations are difficult for the state to “control . . . because they don’t know of their existence.”

Nonetheless, Alex said he did not believe any of the violations posed a direct risk to public health.

The Santa Susana lab, which occupies 2,668 acres of a rugged plateau in the Simi Hills, has been embroiled in controversy over the shutdown and cleanup of former nuclear operations there. However, most of the property is devoted to rocket testing for the government, and the lawsuit addressed the management of chemical rather than radioactive waste.

Among other things, the complaint accused Rockwell of failing to meet deadlines at Santa Susana for closing former hazardous waste ponds; burning explosive waste without a permit; contaminating soil, which constituted improper disposal; failing to promptly report discovery of contaminated soil; and failing to provide the state with manifests for off-site shipments of hazardous wastes.

At the Canoga Park plant at 6633 Canoga Ave., where Rockwell manufactures rocket engines, the company was accused of storing drums of hazardous waste for more than 90 days without a permit.