Energy Agency Will Fund Rockwell Worker Health Study : Environment: The federal department OKs an additional $500,000 for the long-awaited survey at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

The U.S. Department of Energy has approved an additional $500,000 for a worker health study at Rockwell International’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley, a study previously stalled because of insufficient funding.

“A check has been cut,” Larry Hart, a Department of Energy spokesman in Washington, said Friday.

State health officials complained in September that the $341,000 in federal funds allocated for the worker health study was not enough to adequately fund the long-awaited survey and put plans for the health study on hold.

The purpose of the study would be to determine if there have been unusually high incidences of cancer and other illnesses among workers over the years due to chemical and radiological exposure. Rockwell tests rocket engines at the lab and once did extensive nuclear work there for the energy department.

Elinor Blake, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health Services, said her office was notified Wednesday by DOE officials that the $500,000 had been allocated for the study. She said the department expects to receive the money by March.

“We’re extremely happy to finally be able to proceed with the work,” she said.

She said the Department of Health Services will be putting together a technical advisory committee in March to choose a contractor to do the epidemiological study. She said the study will probably begin in May and take 1 1/2 to 2 years to complete.

Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who was instrumental in getting the initial funding for the study, said he was happy that the study was finally going to begin. He said officials and community activists have been pushing for the study for more than three years.

“I’m very pleased that we got the money,” he said. “After all the yelling and screaming that we have been doing, we’re finally going to get some answers.”

Dan Hirsch, a member of the community-based Rocketdyne Clean-up Coalition, said he was happy about the additional money but still has some concerns about who will select the contractor to do the study.

He said representatives from the Department of Energy and Department of Health Services should not be allowed to sit on the technical advisory panel as both agencies have suggested. He said both agencies in the past have failed to keep the public accurately informed about chemical and radioactive contamination at the lab and about ongoing cleanup operations.

“For the public to have confidence in the conclusions of the worker health study, the regulatory agencies responsible for the contamination of the environment should not be in control of a study to determine if anyone was hurt,” he said.

Rockwell since 1989 has been engaged in an ongoing cleanup operation of mostly low-level chemical and radioactive contamination at the lab from more than 30 years of nuclear research. The lab ceased all of its nuclear operations in the late 1980s.

Rockwell officials have maintained for years that there has never been a significant release of contaminants from the lab.

But test results last August revealed for the first time that low levels of tritium, a form of radioactive hydrogen, had seeped into ground water about 100 feet northwest of the lab’s property line. Environmental officials said that the levels were far below the state’s drinking water limits and posed no health risk to the public. The ground water in the area is not used for drinking.

State and federal agencies are conducting more water tests to determine the extent of the contamination.