MORE TESTS NEEDED AT ROCKETDYNE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Rocketdyne needs to test soil and water at its Santa Susana Field Lab for additional toxics - including some probable carcinogens - after its cleanup plan failed to list the range of chemicals used in operations, state regulators say.

Regulators also want the company to determine if chemicals recycled from the Santa Susana Field Lab and used at the Canoga Park facility could have been contaminated with radioactive materials.

The need for the more thorough exam is included in the state's response to the closure plan that Rocketdyne submitted in January for two buildings it had used in nuclear operations.

``If I had gone only on what was provided to me in the closure plan, what information was provided me by Rocketdyne, I would not have known about all these other chemicals. They would have gone unnoticed,'' said Penny Nakashima, a staff geologist and project manager for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

``These units would have been closed, and there would've still been contamination at the site,'' she said.

She said she stumbled on company documents in state files that showed additional chemicals had been used at the site.

A Rocketdyne spokesman said the company has provided the state with a range of documentation about operations and had worked with regulators to provide a speedy and thorough cleanup.

``Rocketdyne has been very forthcoming with all the data that's available,'' Dan Beck said. ``We've tried to be as cooperative as possible with DTSC. It's in our interest and the community interest to move forward on this as soon as possible.''

Beck said earlier testing of the site around the two buildings had not turned up radioactive contamination but that the company was willing to conduct more tests. He could not determine the additional time or costs involved.

``We're working with the agency to respond to the request,'' said Beck. ``There are two things we're looking for: One is that we do as thorough a cleanup as possible; the other is to do it as timely as possible.

``We certainly think our neighbors would like us to do this as quickly as possible,'' he said.

The regulators' concerns were sent to the company earlier this month in response to Rocketdyne's plans for decontaminating and dismantling two buildings at the nuclear portion of the field lab, where a federally mandated, $148 million cleanup is under way.

DTSC is one of a number of agencies regulating the cleanup and is responsible for overseeing chemical contamination.

The site is being cleaned up for unrestricted use, which means homes, shops or offices could one day be built atop the hill where nuclear experiments and rocket testing was conducted for decades.

However, Boeing officials have said they plan to continue using the site as a lab.

DTSC is investigating contamination at two structures that sit on the western portion of the field lab where Rocketdyne conducted nuclear experiments for the Department of Energy until 1989. A decade ago, the Daily News disclosed that radiation had contaminated soil and groundwater at the lab.

One is an 87-by-71-foot treatment building, where Nakashima said components for nuclear experiments were put into a large pan and cooled with sodium hydroxide. The solution was washed down a drain, collected in a tank and recycled for other uses.

The other is a 20-by-40-foot hazardous waste storage facility, where 1,365 pounds of sodium and sodium potassium - highly corrosive wastes - were removed and shipped to a New York disposal facility, Nakashima said.

Both structures were closed in 1997 and are scheduled to be demolished.

State investigators are looking into whether chemicals seeped into the soil and groundwater on the site, and whether they remain in the building materials and equipment.

They are also concerned that chemicals could have spilled as they were transferred, based on company records showing seven spills at the treatment building in the 1980s, according to the state's report.

The investigators are requiring the company to conduct tests for additional chemicals, including trichloroethylene, a probable carcinogen found in solvents, which has been detected elsewhere at the field lab.

The company must also test for a range of cancer-causing radionuclides, including tritium.

To comply, the company may need to:

Test the soil for additional contaminants.

Install additional groundwater monitoring wells to test the water.

Dig deeper into the ground to see if chemicals have lodged in the bedrock beneath the soil, where they could sit until rain washes them into the environment.

If additional contaminants are found, state toxicologists will determine if they exist at levels that pose public health or environmental concerns.

Regulators will then determine if additional cleanup is needed.

Rocketdyne officials will respond to the state regulators' concerns, outlining company plans to meet the requirements or reasons why the additional work is not needed.

Before the 26-week long cleanup work begins, the entire plan will go before the public for review.

Nuclear facilities ultimately require state Department of Health Services review.

Nakashima said her cursory reading of the additional documents provides only a snapshot of the chemicals that were used at the site and that the state is now compiling a complete history of company operations.

``We'll be reviewing all the other documents to see if there's anything else,'' she said.