Rocketdyne Blamed for Toxin in Wells

Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson and Ventura County Supervisor Linda Parks said Tuesday they believe the Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory is the likely source of a toxin found in 17 wells in Simi Valley and one near Ahmanson Ranch.

After a public hearing on the issue Monday, Jackson and Parks said all available information points to the mountaintop field lab above Simi Valley as the source of the perchlorate contamination. Perchlorate is a highly toxic chemical used in rocket fuel.

“We have a pretty good understanding that the Rocketdyne plant is responsible,” said Jackson (D-Santa Barbara). “Who else would it be from? All the other options are pretty much eliminated. Rocketdyne used perchlorate in its rocket testing.”

But Rocketdyne, a division of the Boeing Corp., has maintained that any chemicals and toxins generated by the hilltop lab have been contained to the 2,600-acre site. The company says that research data do not support critics’ theory that the perchlorate migrated from the site to the valley floor via streams and springs.

State investigators also say they cannot prove that the lab, which conducted rocket testing and nuclear research at the site for more than 40 years, is the source of the chemical.

Jackson and Parks are the first public officials to place the onus of the perchlorate contamination on Rocketdyne.

“I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure out that all the sites where perchlorate was found have a real strong connection to Rocketdyne,” Parks said Tuesday. “There’s a real frustration that the polluting industry is fighting regulators because it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars to clean it up.”

Perchlorate has been detected in water wells in at least 20 counties in California. The fast-moving contaminant is known to cause thyroid dysfunction and has become a national concern as states grapple with the environmental effects of aerospace and defense research.

“We want to make sure we provide you with the information as to what perchlorate is and what its ramifications are,” Jackson told the standing-room-only crowd of 100 who attended Monday’s hearing in Thousand Oaks. “We’re trying to learn what we can do and must do to remove perchlorate from our drinking water and soils.”

The hearing was sponsored by the Assembly’s Natural Resources Committee, which Jackson chairs, and the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a preliminary public health goal of 1 part per billion for perchlorate in public water supplies, while California health officials have announced a draft public health goal of 2 to 6 parts per billion. One part per billion is roughly equivalent to a grain of sand in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

Perchlorate was detected in 17 wells in Simi Valley last year with the highest reading at 19.2 ppb. Drinking water supplies are not contaminated or threatened because most of Simi Valley’s tap water is imported from Northern California.

The chemical was also found last year in a well south of the lab, near the proposed Ahmanson Ranch housing development, at 28 ppb. The property where the well is located is owned by a state agency, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. Ahmanson Land Co. donated the property to the state in 1998 but retained rights to use water from the well for irrigation.

Developers had proposed using the well to irrigate a golf course on Ahmanson Ranch but have since talked about capping it.

Dennis Dickerson, executive officer of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, told the panel that follow-up tests will be needed to confirm the reading. But, he noted, perchlorate has been measured at up to 1,600 ppb in soil on the lab site and at 600 to 700 ppb in the groundwater.

In addition, Rocketdyne’s environmental testing records show perchlorate was measured at 17 ppb in rain water draining from the site at its southeast border in the direction of Bell Canyon.

Critics say this supports the contention that perchlorate is migrating from the field lab downhill to heavily populated valleys and canyons.

Jackson said she and the other four members of the Legislature who sat on Monday’s panel will work to ensure that agencies set appropriate public health goals, continue monitoring water wells and try to find the sources of the perchlorate.