Rockwell to Pay $650,000 Over 46 Waste Infractions : Environment: The state agreement involves Palmdale, El Segundo and Santa Susana operations, and emission reductions at Canoga Park plant.

Rockwell International has reached a $650,000 settlement with the state over alleged hazardous waste violations at four company sites in Palmdale, El Segundo and at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory west of Chatsworth.

Under the agreement filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Rockwell will pay $400,000 in fines and $100,000 in investigative costs to the Department of Toxic Substances Control, a branch of the California Environmental Protection Agency.

The aerospace giant will also spend $150,000 at its Canoga Avenue plant in Canoga Park to reduce emissions of chemicals that deplete the Earth’s protective ozone shield, state and company officials said Wednesday.

Although the amount of the settlement is not a record, it is “one of the highest that we’ve ever had in Southern California,” said Florence Pearson, a branch chief with the Department of Toxic Substances Control in Burbank.

The settlement covered 46 separate infractions for which Rockwell was cited in 1990 and 1991. State and company officials said the problems did not involve direct threats to health, but rather failure to follow strict rules on pollution reporting, hazardous waste storage and ground water testing.

“We don’t see any imminent hazard having been created by any of the violations we cited them for,” Pearson said.

This is the third major settlement in two years between Rockwell and state or federal hazardous waste authorities. In November, 1990, the company agreed to pay the state $280,000 to resolve a series of citations at Santa Susana and its Canoga Avenue plant.

And in January, 1991, the company paid a $48,000 settlement to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for alleged hazardous waste violations in Palmdale.

“You can be sure our inspectors will be making return visits to be certain environmental regulations are being complied with,” William Soo Hoo, director of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, said in a prepared statement Wednesday.

In the latest settlement, state officials inserted language aimed at precluding Rockwell from recovering penalty payments from federal agencies that contract with the firm. Deputy Atty. Gen. Ken Alex said the concern stemmed partly from recent reports in The Times about government contractors recouping cleanup costs and, in some cases, fines and penalties from federal agencies as ordinary business expenses.

The agreement said Rockwell “shall not receive contract reimbursement as a direct cost for any part of the settlement amount from the United States.” Alex said he believed this language will assure that Rockwell pays all of the $400,000 fine. He said he was not so certain about the $100,000 payment of investigative costs.

Rockwell’s $150,000 investment in pollution control will accelerate its phase-out of ozone-depleting chemicals. The money will be used to install a new system for cleaning engine parts that uses a water-based detergent instead of Freon 113 and 1,1,1-trichloroethane, or TCA, two common industrial solvents that give off vapors that attack the ozone layer. The new ozone-friendly system will eliminate about 57,000 pounds per year of the harmful emissions, Rockwell said.

Steve Lafflam, environmental director for Rockwell’s Rocketdyne division, which operates the Santa Susana and Canoga Avenue plants, said the firm already had planned to install the new system at Canoga, but now will do so sooner.

Despite a long-running controversy over lingering contamination from past nuclear research at Santa Susana, the 13 violations there did not involve the nuclear research location, known as Area IV.

Instead, they concerned Areas I and III, where Rockwell does rocket testing for NASA and the Air Force, and Area II, which is run by Rockwell but owned by NASA. Serious ground-water contamination exists in these areas due to past disposal of cleaning solvents. The alleged violations, cited in March, 1991, mainly involved Rockwell’s efforts to test and decontaminate the ground water.

Among other things, the company was accused of failing to develop an adequate ground-water sampling and analysis plan, and of failing to properly construct and locate its test wells. Rockwell was also charged with failing to test for certain compounds and failing to meet reporting deadlines.

Lafflam said Rocketdyne officials disputed some of the 13 citations for the test site in the Simi Hills. But “when you settle, you settle all the allegations,” Lafflam said. “We’re glad to put it behind us.”

In Palmdale, Rockwell was accused of 20 violations at its Avenue M and Avenue P plants within Air Force Plant 42--where Rockwell and other contractors develop and test military aircraft.

The Palmdale operation was cited in December, 1990, for failing to properly seal and label containers of hazardous waste, and for failing to surround waste areas with adequate barriers in case of spills.

In El Segundo, Rockwell was cited in January, 1991, for 13 violations at its research and test complex in the 800 block of North Douglas Street. It was charged with exceeding a 90-day limit for storing hazardous wastes, of storing wastes in open drums, and of failing to follow proper procedures in removing underground storage tanks.

Some of the violations involved diluted wastes that company officials said they did not know must be treated as hazardous.

At Palmdale and El Segundo, “most problem areas were immediately corrected, and corrective actions have been taken to address the remaining issues,” said Erik Simonsen, a spokesman for Rockwell’s North American Aircraft division, which operates the plants.