DUMP GOT NUKE WASTE ROCKETDYNE USED VALLEY LANDFILL FOR YEARS.

Byline: Erik N. Nelson Staff Writer

Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory dumped low-level radioactive waste at the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley for much of the past decade without the knowledge of state waste regulators or local officials, a state legislative inquiry has found.

Authorities said Thursday that they may never know how much radioactive material was deposited over a decade of cleanup at the nuclear and rocket research facility in the hills between Chatsworth and Simi Valle.

A state Senate inquiry into the change of state regulations governing cleanup of sites that use radioactive material, which range from cancer clinics to top-secret defense contractors, turned up the information about Rocketdyne's dumping practices last month.

State Integrated Waste Management Board member David Roberti, a former state senator who represented the Valley, said the state Department of Health Services created a loophole that allowed the practice.

Department officials said they were bringing state rules in line with federal Department of Energy standards and, in fact, strengthening limits on permissible radiation exposure.

``We know that they've been dumping this without the knowledge of the local jurisdiction, without the knowledge of the local operator,'' Roberti said. ``We at this point don't know how much waste of this nature has been dumped in other landfills throughout the state.''

State Sen. Richard Alarcon, D-Van Nuys, who represents Sun Valley, expressed alarm that state and federal regulations could allow the dumping of even waste with low levels of radioactive material in an urban area.

``The state Department of Health Services has basically created policies that I believe provide a loophole for people who dispose of certain kinds of waste material to avoid any kind of scrutiny,'' Alarcon said.

Health department spokeswoman Leah Brooks said the department never loosened standards, and a spokesman for Boeing-Rocketdyne said the waste had been cleared by federal and state regulators.

``What California did in 2001 was formally adopt what we had been following since 1997,'' when the federal Nuclear Regulatory Agency changed its standards for cleaning up sites such as Rocketdyne, the spokesman said.

Under the old standard, a person living on the site, drinking its ground water and eating food grown in its soil could be exposed to no more than 100 millirems - one tenth the exposure limit for workers inside nuclear power plants. The new standard lowered that to 25 millirems.

``There may have been residual radiological contamination, but it did not exceed federal standards, and in that regard it is still protective of public health,'' said David Beck, spokesman for Boeing-Rocketdyne.

He said that without checking shipping manifests over the life of the cleanup, which began in the late 1980s, it would be impossible to say how much of the material was dumped in Bradley or other waste facilities.

Contamination from the landfill, which is operated by Waste Management Inc., has long been a cause of concern among local residents and employees of nearby Polytechnic High School, who believe they suffer from an above-normal cancer rate. A Los Angeles County Health Department investigation determined that the ``cancer cluster'' fears were unfounded.

The landfill operator said the company was unaware of the nature of the Rocketdyne shipments.

``We don't have any intention of taking radioactive waste. We had no indication that there was any radioactive material in (the Rocketdyne shipments). Had we known, we wouldn't have taken it,'' said Charles White, director of regulatory affairs for Waste Management's western region.

White indicated the company might support legislation by state Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Rosemead, who called a hearing on the radioactive waste issue two weeks ago.

``We certainly don't want to be in the business of taking this kind of material,'' White said. ``We hope that there is some clarity given to what is and is not radioactive waste so that this kind of problem doesn't occur in the future.''

Roberti said state health officials allowed the dumping by deciding to discard the standard for low-level radioactive waste used by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a new standard used by the U.S. Department of Energy, which employed Rocketdyne to perform nuclear research.

A spokeswoman for the EPA said the agency has no set standard, but instead determines the level of cleanup according to what is feasible and safe, depending upon factors such as what the site's future uses might be.

The change was made without consulting with the state waste board, which Roberti said was unacceptable.

``They have absolutely no experts, no engineers who can safely say how certain kinds of waste are contaminated and how they migrate through the landfill.''

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Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory