CLEANUP STUDY BEGINS SOON.

Byline: Patricia Aidem Staff Writer

SAUGUS - The owner of the contaminated Bermite property expects to begin a study of groundwater contamination within six weeks, working with the federal government to plan the cleanup.

Remediation Financial Inc., owner of the 1,000-acre former munitions testing and manufacturing property, met Wednesday with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control and promised to return with a schedule as soon as possible.

RFI will meet in the coming weeks with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which has been given $5 million in federal funding for the Bermite project - $2 million to study the groundwater contamination and $3 million for soil cleanup.

``Our hope is to have something in four to six weeks; by then we should have a time line nailed down,'' said Gary Brown, RFI's director of development.

RFI will include a plan in the schedule to clean metals and other debris from an area known as the ``hula bowl,'' a small valley at the southern edge of the property, bordering the Circle J development.

That project will be tedious, requiring workers to sift through the soil in search of any unexploded ordnance, caps or other hazards. Brown said it is unlikely any such waste remains on the site.

The DTSC is more concerned about a piece of the property known as Area 55, filled with soil laden with rocket fuel residue believed to be a primary source of the groundwater pollution, said Sara Amir, the department's chief of Southern California cleanup operations. The residue becomes perchlorate when it mixes with groundwater; perchlorate is a chemical that has been linked to thyroid disease.

The problem is that Phoenix-based RFI, required to match the federal funding for the Army Corps. groundwater study, doesn't have enough money, Brown and Amir said.

RFI is battling the city of Santa Clarita for permits to clean the land in phases and, once the state certifies each section as clean, sell it for development. The company's local development arm, Santa Clarita LLC, plans a 3,000-home development there to be called Porta Bella.

The state experts agree with that phased development plan as a viable way of using private money to clean up the site, Amir said.