OFFICIALS ADMIT THEY ERRED ON CLEANUP OF LAB.

Byline: KERRY CAVANAUGH Staff Writer

State toxics regulators admitted Wednesday they made a mistake and are now taking a closer look at a Santa Susana Field Lab burn pit where workers detonated and burned hazardous materials from 1958 to 1990.

The Boeing Co., which owns the lab, and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control had planned this fall to dig out truckloads of dirt contaminated with dioxins and chromium -- without an environmental study or a public hearing.

But the DTSC said during a public hearing in Simi Valley Thursday night that the agency postponed that plan two weeks ago after Boeing submitted more than 700 pages of historic documents that showed some workers had burned material that came from other facilities, including ones that handled radioactive materials.

``Clearly some of the materials handled at the burn pit weren't strictly related to rocket testing,'' said Gerard Abrams, a senior engineering geologist who is overseeing the cleanup for the DTSC.

``I think we need to sit down with our chemists and go through what might have left residuals and what might have combusted completely.''

The DTSC has now directed Boeing to turn over all documents on the burn pit, test for radioactivity in the pit and cap the pit to prevent tainted soil from moving downhill in the rainy season.

SSFL neighbors said they also found evidence in court documents that workers handled radioactive materials in the burn pit, and the lack of transparency shows the residents can't trust Boeing or the regulators to do a thorough job.

``You would not have that information if it hadn't been for us,'' said Elizabeth Crawford with Physicians for Social Responsibility and the group RocketdyneWatch.

``We don't have belief or trust in your process.''

But Boeing officials said the historic documents detailing the hazardous materials burned at the site were not a secret and had been shared with regulators during a cleanup of the burn pit in the 1980s.

The Santa Susana Field Lab is a 2,800-acre facility at the top of the Simi Hills in Ventura County, near the Los Angeles city limits. Beginning in the 1940s, the Department of Energy experimented there with 10 nuclear reactors, one of which experienced a partial meltdown.

The lab also tested rocket engines under contracts with the Department of Defense and NASA.

The burn pit was primarily used to destroy chemicals associated with rocket engine testing, according to Boeing. The historic documents were prepared by the Rocketdyne Division of Rockwell International, which was later purchased by Boeing.

From 1958 to 1971, workers burned thousands of gallons of solvents, toxic heavy metals and fuels in the pit. That was before the passage of state laws governing hazardous waste disposal.

``Back then, there weren't many people near the site,'' said Art Lenox, project manager in charge of the chemical cleanup at the lab. ``At that time, they thought it a safe way to handle the waste rather than putting them in a truck and driving through neighborhoods.''

In 1981, Rocketdyne surveyed the contamination and excavated truckloads of tainted soil under the supervision of state health inspectors.

From 1980 to 1990, Rocketdyne opened another burn area where workers burned smaller amounts of materials and shot armor-penetrating bullets into canisters to release the gases.

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com

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