Rockwell Will Pay $280,000 to Settle Suit : Environment: Documents filed in court by the state alleged hazardous waste violations at the company’s San Fernando Valley operations.

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 west of Chatsworth and its main Canoga Park plant, according to documents filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.

The settlement 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, both 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,” according to Alex, 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.

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

The lawsuit was based on the results of a series of inspections conducted between June, 1989, and January, 1990.

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 but he did not believe they posed a direct risk to public health.

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