State Says More Funds Needed for Rockwell Study : Worker health: Officials say $341,000 will cover only the survey’s overhead. Two legislators are outraged.

State health officials said Thursday that $341,000 the federal government recently allocated for a worker health study at Rockwell International’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory west of Chatsworth is insufficient to do the long-awaited report.

Kim Hooper of the state Department of Health Services said the money would be enough to cover only the overhead costs of the study and that a full examination of the past and present health of the workers to determine if they had abnormally high cancer rates would not be possible.

He said that although the U.S. Department of Energy has promised $500,000 more next year for the worker study, that money is not guaranteed. “We want to be up front with the community,” Hooper said. “You can’t do a study for $341,000.”

The Energy Department is involved in the study because Rockwell formerly did nuclear work at Santa Susana and still does non-nuclear energy research work for the agency. Until recently, the department had said the research money was to be used for an exposure assessment--a study to determine if past toxic or radioactive releases at Santa Susana could have caused health problems of nearby residents.

But in June, the department reversed itself and said the money could be used for the worker health study, which many have viewed as the best way to determine if Rockwell operations pose a health threat to nearby residents.

Lawmakers who had pushed for the study said Thursday that they had been assured that the money would be adequate.

“I’m totally shocked and floored,” said Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar) when he found that much of the money for the worker study would go for overhead expenses such as hiring an independent advisory panel, printing, and renting office space and equipment.

“It’s an abandonment of the commitment they made to the community,” he said. “The money was supposed to go for a worker health study, not a bunch of bureaucrats sitting in offices, issuing press releases. The community has a right to be concerned and to demand answers.”

Assemblyman Terry B. Friedman (D-Los Angeles) agreed.

“I’m very unhappy,” he said. “We’re certainly going to call them on the carpet for this. This is clearly not what we expected.”

Both legislators said they will ask state health officials to redraft their budget for the health study.

Hooper said his department will probably recommend that current plans for the study be abandoned unless the Energy Department can guarantee that additional money will be provided next year.

“The DOE has said that it will pay whatever it costs,” Hooper said. “We need now to get some assurances that they are willing to do that.”

Health officials in February disclosed “extremely preliminary” data showing a small increase in bladder cancer rates in three Canoga Park and Chatsworth census tracts east of the Santa Susana lab. However, the statistical report drew no conclusions about the cause of the apparent increases.