RESIDENTS WANT TO BE INVOLVED IN WATER TESTS.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

Community residents said Wednesday night they wanted to begin testing perchlorate and other contamination samples from the Santa Susana Field Lab to verify Boeing Co. and state agency work.

Though pleased with the more in-depth investigation of perchlorate contamination in the last year, Christina Walsh, with the new community group Cleanuprocketdyne.org, said independent citizen-sponsored sampling and oversight would provide community support at the contentious cleanup.

``The public doesn't trust what's being said now,'' Walsh said. She said her group had private people willing to fund the testing.

California Department of Toxic Substances Control officials have ordered lab owner Boeing Co. to drill monitoring wells around the site to see if perchlorate has moved off the property.

The state has begun to collect perchlorate samples, some of which show the contaminant and others which come up negative. Better data is expected in coming months.

The company has said the rocket fuel product could not leak away because it's trapped in the porous bedrock beneath the surface; however, regulators say the company hasn't proved that theory.

The Santa Susana Field Lab Working Group's meeting Wednesday night in Simi Valley was the first since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stepped down as chair, saying it disagreed with the Department of Energy's cleanup procedures and would scale back its involvement at former nuclear testing portion of the lab.

The Department of Energy did not attend the working group meeting.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com