CONVOYS OF CONTAMINATION; TRUCKS WILL CARRY ROCKETDYNE SOIL THROUGH RESIDENTIAL AREAS ON WAY TO LANDFILL.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Come fall, dump trucks carrying soil contaminated with one of the most toxic man-made chemicals will head down from Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Lab, through Northwest San Fernando Valley to a Central California landfill.

As many as 18 trucks a day will be traversing residential streets for 10 days, hauling dirt contaminated with such deadly contaminants as dioxin, PCBs and mercury.

The dirty work comes after decades of washing down mechanical parts, some from a nuclear reactor, at an open field pit that became one of the hilltop lab's most polluted sites.

West Hills resident Bonnie Clea, for one, will be taking precautions.

``We're very concerned about the trucks going down this street,'' said Clea, whose neighborhood is close to the route along Roscoe Boulevard.

``I will be very careful. I will not be taking evening walks. I will probably tell my neighbors,'' she said. ``And I will be keeping my windows closed.''

State regulators recently unveiled their plan for cleaning up chemical contamination at the former Sodium Disposal Facility, once known simply as the Sodium Burn Pit, which involves hauling 3,200 cubic yards of soil contaminated with dioxin, PCBs and mercury.

When the job is done, the site that has already gone through various radioactive cleanup programs - first in the mid-1970s and again in 1992 when more than 10,000 cubic yards of soil was removed - will be filled with clean soil and planted with foliage.

The plan is under a 45-day review that ends Aug. 19, with the trucks scheduled to begin rolling sometime in September.

``This part of the cleanup is the part where everyone agrees,'' said Pauline Batarseh, supervisor with the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, the agency overseeing the project. ``It's important to remove the soil because we have agreed it has elevated levels of contamination. We see this as a continuous source of contamination at the site.''

The nuclear and rocket-engine test site in the hills between Chatsworth and Simi Valley is under a $148.5 million cleanup, ordered after disclosures in 1989 that nuclear and chemical contamination had seeped into soil and water.

Nuclear research is no longer conducted on the site, although the roar of rocket tests is still frequently heard in the area.

Removing the soil is one way to prevent contaminants from spreading underground when future rains pound the 2-acre burn pit that was used from 1956 to 1978 - long before many contemporary environmental regulations prevented such disposal facilities.

Residents are bracing for this next phase of the cleanup, which will send trucks through their neighborhoods from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for 10 weekdays this fall.

At a recent public hearing, residents posed a range of questions - from how tarps covering the dump trucks would be secure enough to seal in the toxins to whether truck drivers would be aware of the dip in the road at Lena Avenue.

They also wanted to know how they could be sure the soil coming down the hill wouldn't still be tainted with radioactive contaminants possibly left behind from previous cleanup programs.

``I think they need to take the route of transport with the least residents,'' said Clea. ``The area around the (Chatsworth) reservoir is much less populated than Roscoe and Topanga.''

The state Department of Health Services signed off on the nuclear portion of the cleanup in 1998 and has said its tests show radioactivity in the soil is at levels they consider safe.

``If there is any residual contamination at that site, it's a very small amount and should not be a concern to those hauling trucks,'' said Ed Bailey, chief of radiologic health at DHS.

Under the plan, up to 18 trucks a day will depart from the top of Woolsey Canyon Road and head through neighborhoods and business districts before entering the Ronald Reagan Freeway. They'll then travel north on the Golden State Freeway to the Kettleman landfill, about 40 miles outside of Fresno.

The nuclear cleanup trucks from 1991-92 used the route around Chatsworth Reservoir, DHS officials said.

Before the trucks leave the top of the hill, their tires will be washed off - the water caught in drums for disposal - and the soil sprayed down to stop it from blowing.

The soil is contaminated with dioxin - one of the chemicals used in Agent Orange and a probable human carcinogen - so potent that the Environmental Protection Agency limits amounts in residential soil to no more than the equivalent of a drop of water in an Olympic-size pool.

The trucks also will be carrying PCBs, a carcinogen, and mercury, which has been linked to brain, kidney and nervous system disorders, according to the state.

Most of the soil being dug out has dioxin and PCBs at levels below EPA limits, officials said. The mercury-contaminated soil, about 250 cubic yards, is to be transported in steel boxes on trucks.

A state toxicologist said the chemicals are dangerous, but the probability is low that residents along the route would come into contact with an amount of dirt from the most contaminated soil - say a tablespoon full - that could have an effect on health.

``I would keep my kids inside, but I would not be worried about the dust coming off the truck,'' said toxicologist T.R. Hathaway from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control. ``There's a very low probability of being exposed to enough dirt it would result in a carcinogenic effect.''

Once the removal job - which is an interim cleanup plan for the facility - is finished, further discussions will be held to finalize the cleanup plans.

``The Sodium Burn Pit is one of the worst sites in the whole facility,'' said Joe Lyou, an activist with the anti-nuclear group Committee to Bridge the Gap and a member of the community group monitoring cleanup activities.

``It serves as an example of what went wrong at the site because of the amount of contaminants, the fact there were not good records of what went into it and the very lax environmental laws and regulations in place at the time,'' he said.

Rocketdyne's Steve Lafflam agreed the disposal facility has been among the 2,700-acre lab's worst spots, but said the company has done much to clean it up - with radioactive cleanup complete and now chemical cleanup under way. So far, the Energy Department has spent $16 million to clean it up.

``It needs to be in perspective. It's contaminated. It needs to be addressed. It needs to be removed,'' said Lafflam, Rocketdyne's division director for safety, health and environmental affairs. ``It's a major milestone. We're glad to get it behind us.''

Some residents and activists want more to be done to ensure that chemicals are not migrating and they want testing of their communities.

``I think, as a neighbor, we need to have testing done of our own back yards to see what's migrated down,'' said Clea. ``We don't know if we can eat the fruit off our trees, if we can have a back yard garden. We want to know how safe we are in our own homes.''

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MAP: (Color in Conejo and Simi Editions) ROCKETDYNE TOXIC DISPOSAL

Under a plan to clean up Rocketdyne's former Sodium Burn Pit, up to 18 truckloads a day of contaminated soil will be transported this fall through local neighborhoods and business districts on their way to a landfill in Fresno. The thick dark line shows the route.

Traci Wooden/Staff Artist