RADIOACTIVITY DETECTED AT CALABASAS DUMP.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

State-ordered tests detected three types of radioactive material in the groundwater and runoff at Calabasas Landfill, but officials said Wednesday that they need to do more studies to determine whether the levels are hazardous.

Officials tested for six categories of radiation at 50 landfills statewide and found contamination at 29, including the Calabasas Landfill, as well as the Bradley Landfill in Sun Valley and Sunshine Canyon in Granada Hills.

The information in the report will be used as lawmakers consider legislation that would ban the dumping of low-level radioactive waste at landfills.

``What we've got gives us a good starting point in terms of pursuing how California will go about solving this issue,'' said William Rukeyser, spokesman for the California Environmental Protection Agency.

He also noted that the contamination had not migrated off-site.

``The main thing for people to remember is this, most of the high readings are found in the (landfill liquid), contained within landfills just as it should be,'' Rukeyser said.

Nuclear watchdogs and community activists said they were worried by the results.

``We have a problem that is vastly larger than we initially thought,'' said Daniel Hirsch, president of Committee to Bridge the Gap, an outspoken anti-nuclear dumping group.

But landfill operators downplayed the findings, saying low-level radiation is present in refuse dumped routinely at municipal landfills.

``There doesn't appear to be anything alarming,'' said John Gulledge, head of solid waste management at the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, which operates Calabasas Landfill.

``I think all that is reflection that there are certain levels of radioactivity in household trash that comes to landfills,'' he said.

The results come nearly a year after Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory revealed it had disposed of low-level radioactive waste at Bradley Landfill for nearly a decade. The U.S. Department of Energy, which oversaw the cleanup at the nuclear and rocket research facility near Simi Valley, later said Rocketdyne also dumped refuse at the Sunshine Canyon and Calabasas landfills.

The tests found that at the Calabasas Landfill, levels of three categories of radiation - uranium, and gross-alpha and gross-beta radiation - exceeded those that would be allowed if the water were used for drinking. Gulledge attributed the high uranium levels at Calabasas Landfill to the natural presence of the element in the soil, rather than to the dumping of radioactive waste.

``We looked at both background water quality and downstream water quality and saw it was basically the same,'' Gulledge said.

But Calabasas Mayor Lesley Devine was troubled by the initial findings.

``If the results are significantly higher than they should be, we have to look at a variety of options to make sure it is, No. 1, contained and, No. 2, not increased,'' Devine said.

Bradley exceeded recommended levels of gross-beta radiation, but the dump's owner said the amounts were not extraordinary.

``They are certainly in the range of what you would find in solid waste landfill (runoff),'' said Charles White, director of regulatory affairs with Waste Management Inc., which runs Bradley.

Sunshine Canyon tested for excessive levels of tritium, an element that was found in many of the landfills surveyed during the state-ordered study.

State environmental officials said the initial tests give them the chance to get a ``statistical handle on what in fact is out there,'' Rukeyser said.

He also noted that tests generally showed the radioactivity had not migrated from the landfill sites.

``The main thing for people to remember is this: Most of the high readings are found in the (runoff), contained within landfills, just as it should be,'' Rukeyser said.

However, Hirsch was not satisfied with those assurances.

``This is a very powerful warning flag that we have to ban immediately any radioactive waste going into landfills.''

Gov. Gray Davis last year vetoed a bill that would have banned the dumping of low-level radioactive waste at landfills.

Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Rosemead, has reintroduced similar legislation this session. A hearing on her bill will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at the Ronald Reagan State Building, 300 S. Spring St., Los Angeles.

CAPTION(S):

3 boxes, map

Box:

(1) CALABASAS LANDFILL

(2) BRADLEY LANDFILL

(3) SUNSHINE CANYON LANDFILL

SOURCE: Daily News research

Map:

RADIOACTIVE HOT SPOTS 

SOURCE: Daily News research