Neighbors Put Rocketdyne on Hot Seat

Neighbors of Rocketdyne’s beleaguered Santa Susana Field Laboratory grilled company and U. S. officials Thursday night about its prolonged cleanup of radioactive waste and about charges that two scientists died last year while blowing up rocket fuel to get rid of it.

At the same meeting, the U. S. Department of Energy gave a hard estimate on when the cleanup of waste from a 1959 field lab reactor meltdown will be done--2015.

Thursday’s meeting was meant to be a forum for Rockwell International Corp. and the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency to brief neighbors on cleanup of chemical and radioactive waste at the Rocketdyne division’s rugged hilltop field lab southeast of Simi Valley.

But it soon turned into a hot-seat session for Rocketdyne and government officials over the 1994 explosion that claimed the lives of two company scientists.

Otto K. Heiney and Larry A. Pugh were killed and a third worker was hurt July 26, 1994, when the nitrocellulose and glycidal azide polymer they were handling at the lab blew up in their faces.

Last month, agents from the FBI, EPA and other government agencies seized Rocketdyne files in what government sources say is a probe into whether Heiney and Pugh were killed while blowing up the toxic waste to get rid of it.

“The big question is, is this a single incident, or was it a longer practice where it was easier to dispose of it up on the hill where inspectors rarely visited?” asked Dan Hirsch, an advocate for Rocketdyne neighbors in Simi Valley and the San Fernando Valley.

And Rocketdyne neighbor Sybil Scotford of Chatsworth demanded a report from Rocketdyne on the chemical makeup and possible health effects of the materials that Heiney and Pugh were igniting.

“I’ve asked many times if you have an incinerator, and you’ve said no,” said Scotford, head of Concerned Residents Near Rockwell. “But recent news reports say you’ve been incinerating rocket propellants . . . and you’ve lied to us.”

Chatsworth attorney Elliott Bowdach also asked for details on what was being burned, saying that winds could have spread toxic chemicals far beyond the field lab.

But EPA and Rocketdyne officials declined to answer any questions because the blast is still under investigation.

Over the years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the energy department and various military agencies have contracted with Rocketdyne for research projects at the field lab, ranging from nuclear reactor testing to development of space shuttle engines.

Residents also pushed for details on cleanup of radioactive waste--and on how far radioactive elements have spread beyond the field lab’s perimeter.

Chatsworth resident Lavonne Klea, a former Rocketdyne worker, said she has been diagnosed with bladder cancer, after working in buildings near the ruined reactor just four years after it melted down. She demanded to know what caused her cancer, a rare form often linked to radiation exposure.

But Rocketdyne and EPA officials said they were unable to answer.