ROCKETDYNE MAKES PUBLIC PLANS TO REMOVE FIELD LAB PERCHLORATE.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

Rocketdyne officials Friday presented details of their $1 million plan to remove perchlorate contamination from the Santa Susana Field Lab, capping a week of interest in the rocket and one-time nuclear energy testing facility between the San Fernando and Simi valleys.

As they push to start the perchlorate cleanup, Rocketdyne officials also stepped up assertions made earlier this week by regulators that perchlorate findings near Ahmanson Ranch and the Brandeis-Bardin Institute could be mistaken.

Rocketdyne's environmental remediation manager Steve Shestag called the company's cleanup and ongoing investigation an ``unbelievably comprehensive program'' to deal with perchlorate contamination.

``We want to make sure we get the perchlorate and we don't have continued problems,'' said project manager Art Lennox.

The perchlorate project would be the next phase in ongoing toxic cleanup of the hilltop lab that is being remediated to standards that would allow residential housing.

The presentation came after University of California, Los Angeles, scientists announced this week that they were narrowing in on the extent of damage in surrounding communities that might have been exposed to chemicals from the lab, a question that has lingered for years. Preliminary results are expected in December.

In 1989, the Daily News disclosed that toxic contamination had been found at the lab, now owned by Boeing, leading to state and federal investigations and cleanup efforts.

State toxics department regulators, who received the cleanup plan Monday, could not say whether their review would be done in time for work to begin next month as Boeing wants.

``We look at it as a priority project,'' said Ron Baker, a spokesman for the state Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Perchlorate, suspected in causing thyroid dysfunction, was used at Rocketdyne primarily for igniting propellants, officials said.

Under the plan, Rocketdyne officials propose cleaning contaminated soil by using manure or orange juice-like citric acid to gobble up the perchlorate - rather than having it shipped out to a hazardous waste site - similar to alternative practices used elsewhere, officials said.

Contaminated soil as high as 72,000 parts per billion in one area needs to be cleaned to the drinking water standard of 4 ppb.

They've pinpointed two main areas where soil needs treatment - a garage-size site of the former perchlorate storage facility as well as a mix-and-test site in Happy Valley, a short distance away, both on the east end of the 2,700-acre lab. Together the two sites have up to 1,500 cubic yards of contaminated soil.

Baker, the state spokesman, said similar alternative technologies have been used elsewhere in the state.

The cleanup plan also calls for investigation of two small landfills on the east end of the site, and a hazardous disposal area that is separate from the old burn pit where toxic trash was dumped on the west side of the lab where soil was removed a few years ago.

The company said earlier this week that it would also be sinking new wells to test for contamination. An assessment based on wells and geological data is expected later this year.

But the company said Friday that it is convinced there is no contamination on property near Ahmanson Ranch to the south or the Brandeis-Bardin Institute to the north, despite previous readings showing perchlorate.

Officials said the readings were simply wrong, part of the ``growing pangs'' of science dealing with the relatively new chemical.

Baker said while variances can be expected in testing any substance, the department is not convinced that the wells are clean.

Lisa Mascaro, [phone]

lisa.mascaro(at)dailynews.com