OFFICIALS SLAM DOE'S MINOR FIELD LAB CLEANUP.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Rejecting warnings of health risks, the U.S. Department of Energy decided that just 2 percent of the nuclear contamination at Rocketdyne's field lab in the Simi Hills above Chatsworth will be removed, officials said Tuesday.

The final cleanup plan, which allows a potential cancer risk up to 300 times greater than an alternative proposal that would have cost more than two times as much, was immediately denounced by California's two U.S. senators, other officials and community activists.

Since the Daily News revealed radioactive and toxic chemical contamination at the site in 1989, lawmakers and activists have sought a thorough investigation. They have pushed for a cleanup that would have allowed a risk of only one in a million cancer deaths among residents if the hilltop site were developed.

The DOE's plan would cost about $100 million, compared with more than $200 million for the alternative.

``I am deeply disappointed that the Department of Energy appears to have reneged on a commitment made to the people of this community to clean up the site consistent with EPA's Superfund standards,'' said Sen. Dianne Feinstein.

``The local community is understandably concerned about potential health and environmental risks, and their concerns should not be ignored by the federal agency responsible for the contamination of the site.''

Sen. Barbara Boxer said she would call on Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Todd Whitman to conduct a full-scale review and seek legislative action to get a complete site cleanup.

``The Department of Energy is authorizing the release of a witches' brew of radioactive and chemical contaminants,'' Boxer said.

State Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Los Angeles, called the DOE plan insufficient, and said she plans to seek legislation that would prevent the property from being sold unless the stricter cleanup standard is used and that would require disclosure of cancer risks to potential buyers.

``We don't intend to stand still for it,'' Kuehl said.

The Energy Department officials said cost estimates did not determine their decision and that the cleanup would get as close as possible to the one-in-a-million risk level.

The plan meets Superfund guidelines, they said, and the risks are low for the estimated 500 people who could one day live on the site.

``It's still less than one person,'' said DOE spokesman John Belluardo. ``The decision is based on the fact that it is protective of human health and the environment. The fact we can select that for half the cost is an added benefit for taxpayers, but certainly not the motivation.''

The decision caps an environmental assessment process launched in May 2000 to take a comprehensive look at nuclear contamination after the agency started cleaning up the site, where nuclear research was halted in 1988.

The Daily News disclosed in 1989 that chemical and nuclear contamination was found at the site, where health studies eventually found higher cancer mortality rates among workers exposed to radiation and some chemicals.

Rocket engine testing and other work continues today at other parts of the sprawling 2,800-acre lab in the hills between the San Fernando and Simi valleys.

The DOE is using the one-in-3,333 cancer-death risk with the intention of getting to a one-in-50,000 risk. Risks are based on various expectations of residents living at the site over a 40-year period.

Under the final plan, the department will remove 9,100 cubic meters of contaminated soil and debris - compared with 408,450 under the alternative.

That means they'll be hauling 670 truckloads of soil compared with about 30,000.

Project Manager Mike Lopez said it's not feasible to get to the one-in-a- million risk level.

``It is just extremely difficult to get to that small delta above background,'' he said. ``Sometimes you can't get down to that level, as far as some of the radio nucleides.''

As part of its report, the DOE said no further environmental review is needed at the site.

The EPA's Arlene Kabei, associate director of the waste management division, declined to comment.

A Boeing spokeswoman said the standards being used to clean up Rocketdyne are consistent with those at nuclear sites in most other states.

``I can just say we're committed to cleaning the field lab to residential standards and releasing it to use,'' said Boeing's Blythe Jameson. ``We're going to do what's in the best interest of the community and our employees.'

From the 1950s, that portion of the lab had been used for nuclear energy research, operations that were shut down in 1988. Health studies of workers exposed to radiation found higher cancer mortality rates.