Protesters Disrupt Lab Panel Meeting

After protesters refused to leave the closed-door meeting, federal environmental regulators canceled Wednesday’s gathering called to discuss the fate of a panel monitoring the cleanup of Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

A handful of picket-carrying protesters entered the meeting of the Santa Susana Field Lab Work Group at Simi Valley City Hall angry that a closed-door session was being held when the group’s charter calls only for open meetings.

At issue was an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to revamp the work group, possibly by adding or changing membership and calming the often-raucous atmosphere of the group’s meetings, where information is shared about the multimillion dollar cleanup of the field lab. After decades of nuclear and rocket-engine testing, the lab is contaminated with various cancer-causing chemicals.

The community members appointed by local lawmakers to sit on the work group fear that the group may be disbanded altogether or that they may be ousted for being openly critical of the aerospace giant.

“The EPA was playing George Wallace at the schoolhouse gate by preventing the public and the press from entering,” said Rocketdyne critic and committee member Dan Hirsch, referring to the late Alabama governor who attempted to block integration in schools.

A Rocketdyne spokesman decried the protesters’ tactics.

“The work group hasn’t accomplished anything in awhile because of the same kind of contentious and disruptive behavior that occurred today,” spokesman Dan Beck said.

After disbanding the closed-session meeting, EPA officials scheduled an open meeting in December.