SIMI VALLEY : U.S. to Restore Some Lab Cleanup Funds

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) announced Wednesday that the U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to restore some of the funding it intended to cut next year for ongoing cleanup operations at Rockwell’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

Gallegly, in a statement released from his Washington office, said that although it is not clear how much additional money will be provided, he hopes that the full spending cut of $960,000 will be restored.

John Frith, a Gallegly spokesman, said the congressman recently received a letter from Leo Duffy, a top-level DOE official in Washington, assuring him that more money would be available next year for cleanup at the lab southeast of Simi Valley. “They assured us they would be most cooperative,” Frith said.

Duffy could not be reached for comment.

Rockwell is engaged in a multi-year cleanup of mostly low-level chemical and radioactive contamination from more than 30 years of nuclear research at the lab, which ceased all nuclear operations in the mid-1980s.

DOE officials announced in September that $960,000 would be cut from next year’s $10.7-million cleanup budget. Agency officials said the DOE was implementing a 10% across-the-board cut at facilities nationwide in an effort to create a reserve fund.

Soon after the announcement, Gallegly sent a letter to Adm. James D. Watkins, head of the DOE, urging him to restore funding in light of a recent report that low-level radioactive pollution had seeped into ground water near the lab site.

Tritium, a form of radioactive hydrogen, was found in a test well 100 feet northwest of Rockwell’s property line, although at levels below drinking-water limits, state health officials said. The water is not used for drinking and poses no health risk, officials said.