EDITORIAL SANTA SUSANA'S LEGACY GOVERNMENT AND CORPORATE SECRECY AND DENIAL HAVE PLAGUED CLEANUP.

IT should not have taken 18 years for government and corporate officials to begin to take seriously the environmental problems at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in the hills above Chatsworth.

In 1989, the Daily News exposed that serious toxic contamination had occurred at the site during decades of nuclear and rocket research. But the secrecy and denials by corporate and government officials have continued over the years, hampering efforts by nearby residents and former workers to find out the extent of problems and possible dangers to their health.

This week -- as officials of Boeing Co., which inherited the site from Rocketdyne, were celebrating a spectacular quarterly profit of $1.1 billion and a record high in their stock price -- a small measure of environmental justice occurred.

The company was hit with a fine of $471,190 by the Los Angeles Water Quality Control Board for allowing excessive levels of lead, mercury and other toxins from the field lab site into the exclusive West Valley community of Bell Canyon and the Los Angeles River.

In all, 79 water-quality violations were cited. These violations did not occur in the decades under the careless command of the site's former owners who, with the help of federal government officials, concealed numerous violations, including a nuclear reactor meltdown that could have threatened the lives of thousands of San Fernando Valley residents.

No, these violations occurred on Boeing's watch between October 2004 and January 2006. Of course, a half-million-dollar fine is unlikely to break the bank at Boeing or cause any executives to lose their lucrative stock options, or even feel any shame.

Indeed, a far worse price has been paid by nearby residents and former field lab workers who have fought the company and the U.S. Department of Energy for years just to get basic information that might have linked their illnesses to what has gone on at Santa Susana.

It shouldn't have taken 18 years for the wheels of justice to start turning. But it has. Last week, a judge forced the halt of an incomplete cleanup of the site so that it could get a full environmental study. And California's two U.S. senators are pushing legislation to get payouts for lab workers who were sickened from being exposed to toxins.

We can't allow another 18 years to go by before the full extent of contamination at the former Rocketdyne lab is disclosed and to get it cleaned up properly.