Fight Begins Over Field Lab Cleanup Funding

Congressional representatives and area residents are gearing up to fight proposed Bush administration budget cuts that could slow the federal cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory by at least two years.

The cleanup of contaminated water, soil and buildings on the Department of Energy’s portion of the Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne site near Simi Valley is a $250-million effort that began a decade ago. The work is scheduled to be completed by 2007. The overall contamination comes from decades of rocket-engine testing and Cold War-era nuclear research.

Funding had been set at $17 million a year. But Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham wants to reduce next year’s spending by $3.7 million--part of $467 million in cuts proposed nationally at similar sites.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), whose constituents include neighbors of the 2,800-acre facility, said Wednesday he will fight “aggressively” to restore full funding for the cleanup.

“And if we find out it will take more money [each year], then I’ll fight for that,” he said.

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) said he also would push to restore funding for the cleanup at Santa Susana and other facilities throughout the state.

Meanwhile, environmentalists, anti-nuclear activists and dozens of homeowners near the facility plan to pack a May 2 meeting in Simi Valley, where local, state and federal officials are set to present an update on work at the site.

“We’re very disturbed,” said Marie Mason, a 29-year resident of Santa Susana Knolls. Mason was part of a class-action suit against Rocketdyne that was ultimately thrown out. “Not only will it push things back by years,” Mason said of the proposed federal cutbacks, “but I think they may not do as good a cleanup as they might have done.”

Anti-nuclear activist Dan Hirsch agreed. “This is just one piece in a larger assault by the Bush administration on the promised cleanup of the site,” he said. “I fear now that the site will never be cleaned up fully.”

Roger Liddle, a Department of Energy official who oversees environmental projects in California, said he understands these concerns but believes some critics are overreacting.

The new administration, he said, is “basically going to set this as a jumping-off point and do a sweeping assessment of the environmental management program to see whether we’re doing things the right way or whether it can be done faster and cheaper.”

Even if no additional efficiencies can be found and the cleanup budget is permanently scaled back to $13.3 million, completion of the cleanup would be delayed only two years, he said.

Meanwhile, Liddle said he has the ability to prioritize portions of the cleanup. If, for instance, there’s less money to go around and the community is most concerned about ground-water contamination, then that could become the priority, he said.

“It’s not the department’s position that we’re walking away from anything or stopping anything,” he said. “The department will fulfill its obligations.”

Finally, the Department of Energy’s section of the cleanup focuses on only 90 acres of the site. Cleanup at other portions of the facility is Boeing’s responsibility, and spokesman Dan Beck said the company’s separate cleanup plans won’t change.

“We are engaged in as aggressive a cleanup as possible, and we’ll proceed with that process with whatever resources are made available to us,” Beck said. “Our commitment to the community is to make sure it’s done and done right.”