EPA TO CLOSELY MONITOR ROCKETDYNE CLEANUP AFTER GROUP AIRS COMPLAINTS.

Byline: Christopher Noxon Daily News Staff Writer

Under pressure from a watchdog group, the Environmental Protection Agency has agreed to more closely oversee clean up of Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory - but community activists say the effort is still not enough.

``They're giving Rocketdyne free rein to do the cleanup,'' said Simi Valley resident Barbara Johnson, a member of the Rocketdyne Cleanup Coalition. ``It's like trusting a felon who tells you he's going to be a good boy from now on. It's absolutely ridiculous.''

Rockwell officials said they welcomed closer regulation by the EPA, which has acted as a federal watchdog on the cleanup at the sprawling 2,600-acre field lab in the Simi Hills since 1989.

``It will be great to have their involvement and their concurrence,'' said Rockwell spokesperson Lori Circle. ``We're in support of anything that will help verify the effectiveness of our cleanup.''

But members of the coalition say the EPA's plans to keep close watch over decontamination of the mountainside facility - a testing ground for nuclear and chemical experiments until 1989 - still allows the company too much freedom.

The group has asked federal regulators to assign Greg Dempsey, a health expert from the EPA's Las Vegas office, to permanently oversee the operation. Dempsey has been a harsh critic in the past of Rocketdyne's historical handling of nuclear materials at Santa Susana.

``We need someone up there who the community can trust,'' said Dan Hirsch, an anti-nuclear activist and member of the work group. ``We can't have any confidence that Rocketdyne is doing what it says until there is independent monitoring. They've been dodging that all along.''

EPA officials did not return phone calls Tuesday.

But during a meeting at 7 tonight at Simi Valley City Hall, EPA officials are expected to outline their plans for a review of the cleanup of 25 areas identified as sources of low-level radioactive contamination.

Contractors for Rockwell International Corp.'s Rocketdyne Division say they have cleaned up 20 of the 25 hotspots and expect to complete the job by the year 2000.

Concerns about environmental problems at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory arose in May 1989 when the Daily News reported that a DOE survey had found radioactive and chemical contamination problems at Santa Susana.

The EPA stepped in and assumed oversight of the cleanup program at the field laboratory, which was the site of four decades of nuclear research conducted by the company under DOE contracts. A $55 million cleanup is under way.

The DOE survey and subsequent testing and expanded environmental monitoring has revealed no evidence of a health threat to workers or the public.