EPA TO LEAD SURVEY OF ROCKETDYNE SITE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

In a reversal Friday that won community praise, a congressman reported that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will retake the lead in a survey for nuclear contamination at the Santa Susana Field Lab as residents near the site wanted.

Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Oxnard, pushed the EPA to take over the survey after community outrage over the fact that a key component of the Rocketdyne facility's cleanup was being left in the hands of the Department of Energy, which oversaw nuclear energy and rocket fuel research at the site.

``One of the most important parts to the residents there is they can feel secure it is a transparent and totally honest process they can trust,'' said Gallegly, who met with EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and asked for the change.

``Whether it's accurate or not, there is a perception by many that to have DOE leading the survey to verify the work they are required to do ... would be very suspect by many.''

Activists praised the turn of events that came a month after the EPA had surprised residents by announcing it was changing course on what community members said was a promise made five years ago to handle the work.

``It's a major victory and Gallegly, I think, really deserves a great deal of credit for going to the mat,'' said anti-nuclear activist Dan Hirsch who has led community efforts at the site for years. ``A month ago EPA said we're breaking our word. ... It's a big, big change.''

The long-planned study would test for nuclear contamination in the soil in the DOE's 290-acre portion of the sprawling Boeing field lab between Chatsworth and Simi Valley.

Nuclear and chemical contamination had been found at the facility in the late 1980s and nuclear energy research was shut down in 1989, while rocket testing and other work continues.

The Department of Energy has contracted with Boeing to conduct a $148 million cleanup that has involved dismantling buildings that had been involved in energy research and digging out contaminated soil.

The long-awaited EPA survey is expected to judge the cleanup that has been done and will look at other areas that might not have been fully studied.

EPA officials had said last month that they had overstretched their commitments and did not have the staff or resources to conduct the study.

However, in a letter Gallegly received Friday, Whitman said the ``EPA is prepared to provide a thorough radiological survey ... contingent on funding from the Energy Department.''

Jeff Scott, the EPA's director of waste management in San Francisco, said the department had formed a survey team that was now drawing up the scope of the survey.

``We heard the community and the congressman's concerns,'' Scott said. ``Although we typically do not conduct these kinds of surveys ourselves, we feel the overriding factor was to fulfill the previous commitment that was made by the agency.''

The Department of Energy said it welcomed the EPA's role.

``DOE feels that it has done a good job of managing the environmental cleanup at the (site),'' said DOE spokesman John Balluardo in Oakland. ``We feel the EPA survey could be helpful to assure the public we've done a good job.''

However, the EPA expects the Department of Energy to pay for the work, which Whitman noted in her letter still needs to be secured.

No price tag has been put on the survey, but estimates have ranged from $10 million to $50 million, activists and regulators said.

The DOE's Balluardo said there was no guarantee the project would be funded this coming fiscal year, and that the department would consider the expenditure along with others in its budget.

``It's difficult to determine what our funding priorities would be,'' said Balluardo, adding that the energy secretary has called for a nationwide review of cleanup operations. ``We'll basically evaluate the scope and make a determination at that point and time if it's appropriate to move forward.''

Some said one sticking point could come from the cleanup levels the EPA decides to use in the survey - the EPA supports using those that allow contamination to be left on the site that poses a one-in-a-million cancer risk, but contamination levels that allow a greater cancer risk have been discussed in the past for the site.

The EPA said the DOE has agreed to the tougher cleanup levels, but Balluardo said that's an issue ``we would have to look at closely.''

Also at issue is the role of EPA scientist Gregg Dempsey, who the community wants to play a part in the survey because in 1989 he found that further investigation was needed.

The EPA said Friday that the scientist would be an ``integral part'' of the survey team.

The EPA's Scott said the crew will be looking for nuclear contamination throughout the DOE portion of the lab, including sites already cleaned and those that have not yet been surveyed.

He said the proposed plan outlining the way the survey would be conducted is expected to be ready for public review at the next meeting of the work group that monitors cleanup; the meeting is scheduled for September.

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