More Cause for Questioning

Nearly five years later, fallout from a fatal explosion at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Test Laboratory continues to fly.

Last week a federal grand jury indicted three scientists involved in the July 1994 explosion on four counts of violating U.S. environmental laws. Like the two killed in the blast, the three indicted were employed by Rockwell International Corp.’s Rocketdyne Division, which was sold in 1996 to Boeing Co. That year, Rockwell pleaded guilty to three felony counts of mishandling hazardous chemicals and agreed to pay $6.5 million in fines for the explosion. The deal granted Rockwell immunity from federal charges of illegal handling of hazardous waste that occurred since 1991 but did not shield individual employees from prosecution.

If there is any value to prosecuting these individuals at this point, it is to remind workers and stockholders in every industry that they share responsibility for making sure their companies follow the law.

Although Rocketdyne executives initially said the explosion resulted from a scientific experiment involving the mixture of chemicals, authorities later rejected that explanation as a cover for criminal actions, including illegal destruction of explosive wastes.

That history of deception is why The Times supports vigorous inquiry into new allegations that the state Department of Health Services worked with Rocketdyne to suppress a cancer survey of the community surrounding the Santa Susana Field Lab and to dissolve or reshape a citizens committee that oversees the lab cleanup effort.

Three investigations into those allegations were announced last week.

The cancer survey, which showed a higher-than-normal incidence of lung cancer in the area, was completed in 1997 but made public only two weeks ago after Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) received a copy from activists, who had obtained it through a public records search.

Kuehl also released several letters, internal memos and copies of e-mail from the Department of Health Services that appear to show the agency working with Rocketdyne officials to dissolve a citizens oversight committee and to give the company greater control over inquiries into possible health problems resulting from 50 years of rocket and nuclear reactor testing at the lab.

Rocketdyne officials deny any wrongdoing and say the company only worked with state health officials to ensure that good science would be used in future studies. Health officials say they did not release the 1997 report because the study’s methodology was flawed and did not consider other factors such as smoking.

It is proper for Rocketdyne to have a voice on the committee that oversees health studies and directs the multimillion-dollar cleanup of its facility. But it is not proper for it to dictate the other members of that committee, something Kuehl believes it was trying to do. If investigators determine that state health officials allowed the company’s interests to eclipse those of the lab’s neighbors, those officials should be replaced by ones who understand that their only allegiance is owed to the public.

The Times has long called for a comprehensive study by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to seek answers to troubling questions about whether all those years of secret testing at the lab had any effect on the environment or health in surrounding areas. The results of previous studies, including two UCLA studies of Rocketdyne employees, reinforce our belief that only solid information collected by impartial researchers will lay to rest the lingering suspicions and fears.