Neighbors Deserve to Know

It’s good that the U.S. Department of Energy is willing to pay Rocketdyne $148.5 million to clean up contamination at its Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The pollution resulted from work the lab did for the DOE, after all, and the company has the equipment to do the job and an unfortunate wealth of experience at overseeing such work.

But what about the rest of the cleanup project--scrubbing away the lingering suspicion and fear in the minds of neighbors that the lab’s activities may be to blame for their health problems?

A study of cancer rates and patterns in the communities nearest the open-air field lab remains on hold for lack of funding, despite requests from state Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D.-Calif.).

In letters sent in October to the heads of DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency, Feinstein said that neighbors deserve to know whether their health was jeopardized by four decades of nuclear and rocket-engine testing at the 2,668-acre field lab in the hills between Simi Valley and Chatsworth.

Not our problem, replied DOE. Its new contract with Rocketdyne calls for demolition of seven contaminated buildings, cleanup of ground water and soil and removal of chemicals and radioactive materials from the site. But further health studies? Try some other agency.

“I regret the fact that the [energy] department is not able to fund the 1998 community health study project but has requested that the Department of Health and Human Services consider doing so,” Feinstein said last week. “I believe it is important that these health studies be finished.”

So does The Times. We recognize the important role Rocketdyne and its field lab have played in winning the Cold War and the race into space. We also recognize that during early years of the lab’s operations, little attention was paid to environmental sensitivity and far less was known about the health effects of chemical and radioactive pollution. Times and priorities were different then.

But now we know enough to be concerned. Rocketdyne and its main customer--the United States government--owe it to the lab’s neighbors in the Simi and San Fernando valleys to provide answers to a few basic questions:

* Do patterns of cancer cases near the site suggest that neighbors were ever endangered?

* If so, are they still?

* What can be done now to reduce any risks?

Feinstein is right to push federal agencies to pay for a study that will put those lingering questions to rest. Until the answers are in hand, no matter how many millions are spent to truck away contaminated water and soil, the cleanup at Rocketdyne will remain incomplete.