Rocketdyne Probe Given to State EPA

Prompted by allegations of high-level collusion, Gov. Gray Davis on Monday removed state health officials from overseeing contamination studies at Boeing and Rockwell International Corp.’s Rocketdyne field laboratory near Chatsworth and ordered an investigation into the agency’s dealings with the defense contractor.

In a letter to Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica), Davis said he has directed state Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Winston Hickox to look into whether the state health department worked with Rocketdyne to suppress a 1997 study showing elevated lung cancer rates around the laboratory.

“I share your concerns regarding the potential health impacts on nearby communities resulting from site contamination at the facility,” Davis wrote to Kuehl, whose allegations last month prompted him to act. “And I want to assure you that I will do all I can to restore public faith in the state’s efforts to assist the community in addressing these concerns.”

Last month, Kuehl made public a number of internal department documents that she said illustrate a pattern of collusion between the department and Boeing’s Canoga Park-based Rocketdyne Division. The supposed goal was to gain greater control of the inquiry into contamination and illnesses potentially related to decades of testing at the site.

Kuehl said the speed and scope of the governor’s response was surprising, and she hopes it will result in a fairer and more truthful analysis of the issue.

“He’s a very deliberative man and takes action only after very careful analysis and consideration,” she said. “I think that what this shows us is that he’s taking this issue very seriously and wants to make sure that something, the right thing, is done here.”

Since Kuehl went public, the health department and a state legislative committee have promised to look into the allegations arising from the documents. The documents include correspondence between the department and Rocketdyne, which proposed replacing an existing citizens committee, which is coordinating health and environmental studies at Rocketdyne.

Rocketdyne ran 10 nuclear reactors at the mountaintop site for the Atomic Energy Commission and Department of Energy from the 1950s to the 1980s. Work continued through a number of accidents, some of them serious, including a partial fuel meltdown in 1959.

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Although nuclear research at the field lab was halted in 1989, rocket engine and fuel tests continue.

Formerly a division of Rockwell International Corp., Rocketdyne was sold to Seattle-based Boeing in 1996.

Both Rocketdyne and the state health department have vehemently denied there was any improper relationship between them. But officials at the Department of Health Services said that considering the gravity of the allegations, the governor made the right decision.

Jim Stratton, deputy director of prevention services at the department, said an independent investigation and transfer of authority to the state EPA was the most responsible course of action.

“Given the concern that has been expressed recently, the department feels this is best,” he said. “The department is comfortable handing the baton to some other entity. I hope they can answer some of these questions.”

However, not everyone was pleased with having the EPA assume authority over the Rocketdyne matter.

Dan Hirsch, co-chairman of the independent committee overseeing health studies and pollution cleanup at the lab, worried that despite a new agency in charge, the same attitude and problems will persist.

“Removing DHS was the right thing to do, but I’m a little worried that we might have jumped from the frying pan right into the fire,” he said. “I’m not at all convinced that [the EPA] is going to be impartial, because of things that have happened in the past.”

Specifically, Hirsch cites accusations made some years ago that the state EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, which will also be involved in the Rocketdyne issue, repeatedly watered down and destroyed scientific reports. Those reports supposedly found significant health threats resulting from pesticide use and other contamination over the years at locations throughout the state.

“I think we’ll have to continue being vigilant,” Hirsch said. “By no means does [Davis’] decision mean that we’re going to be able to do our work freely. We’ll have to see how this works.”

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Davis removed the health department’s involvement by transferring $150,000 from its 1999-2000 budget to the EPA. That agency will use the money to support the current citizens committee’s work in determining whether decades of nuclear and chemical testing at the Rocketdyne facility resulted in serious health damage.

Davis said the investigation should be completed within 90 days. Depending on the EPA’s findings, he could recommend an audit by Secretary of Health and Human Services Grantlin Johnson into the Department of Health Services’ dealings with Rocketdyne.

Any such decision will not be made until later this summer, when the EPA has completed its inquiry.