Talks on Test Site’s Future Stall Amid Battle Over Control

Stalled negotiations over the future of a sophisticated government testing facility in the rugged hills west of the San Fernando Valley are proving that the road to post-Cold War privatization can be as rocky as the road to peace.

The negotiations involve the 90-acre Energy Technology Engineering Center in the Santa Susana Mountains, which over the past 30 years has tested everything from pumps for a new generation of nuclear reactors to earthquake safety devices.

The Department of Energy decided last year to close the facility, and set up talks on its future between a citizens group of Valley business leaders and the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International, which operates the site for the government. Similar talks have taken place nationwide as the government tries to privatize former military bases and other defense facilities.

But the negotiations here have become so contentious--including so far unproven allegations of the theft of millions of dollars worth of government equipment--that the government sent a high-level team from Washington last week to try to break the impasse.

After meeting with the participants, Robert Le Chevalier, the Department of Energy site manager, said there were no breakthroughs but that he detected flexibility in the two sides that he hoped could lead to an eventual solution.

The sticking point is over who will run the facility after the government withdraws. The citizens group, known as a Community Reuse Organization, says it cannot carry out its mandate to find private commercial uses for the testing facility without gaining control of the land, either through purchase or a long-term lease.

But Rocketdyne has contended that it must control the site, located within the boundaries of Rocketdyne’s 2,700-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory, which tested the rockets that blazed America’s path into space.

The main reason negotiations are so difficult is that Rocketdyne owns the land while the government owns the buildings--greatly complicating any plans for the future use of the site.

The citizens group charges that unless the government takes action, millions of dollars worth of taxpayer-funded testing facilities will wind up in the hands of Rocketdyne.

“We aren’t being treated civilly or fairly,” said Chuck Bloomfield, who is on the citizens group’s board.

The organization also has harsh words for the government, accusing the Energy Department of betraying the group by not standing up to Rocketdyne. On Oct. 31, 1995, the department sent a letter to Rocketdyne, informing the company of its intent to buy the land, according to the citizens group. Just three months later, James Hirahara, the department’s associate manager for site management, sent a letter to the citizens group saying the government had decided “it is not in [the department’s] best interest” to purchase or lease the site.

Hirahara said that the department never said it was going to buy the land, and that it was merely preserving the right to do so.

“As we got farther into the discussions, it didn’t seem like the way to go,” he said.

Officials of the citizens group say that if the negotiations break down, they fear that the government will simply abandon the facility to Rocketdyne.

Despite the difficulties, Rocketdyne officials said they hoped negotiations would proceed and professed respect for the citizens group.

The testing center opened in 1966, mainly to test components to be used in nuclear power plants, such as pumps and valves.

With the phaseout of the nuclear program in the late ‘70s, the test facility began working on solar projects and energy conservation.

The current work at the site, which includes seismic testing of isolators designed to help bridges survive earthquakes and huge pumps for Japanese sodium reactors, will continue into 1997.

The citizens group was established in 1994, when Rocketdyne officials approached Bonny Capobianco, executive director of the Valley Industry and Commerce Assn., and asked her to head the organization.

Talks began amicably, but as negotiations proceeded, it became clear that both sides envisioned far different roles for each other.

The citizens group members decided they needed control over the site in order to market it effectively to commercial contractors interested in using the facility to safely test their products.

But, said Mark Gabler, director and program manager of the test center, “this is an important resource for Rocketdyne. We intend to continue to operate it.”

The theft issue arose after the citizens group toured the site recently. Group members noticed that the chemistry lab and engineering building had been cleaned out.

“You walk into the building and all the desks, the chemistry equipment, had disappeared,” said Bloomfield. “We know that stuff is gone. It has to be determined whose fault it is.”

Gabler said nothing has been taken. He said that after the government announced its plans to pull out of the test center, Rocketdyne reduced its work force there from 160 to 80. Desks were moved and old chemicals disposed of, but nothing was misappropriated, he said.

But Hirahara said equipment is missing. “Whether there is pilferage, or a corporate decision to misdirect property, I can’t say.”