MIKE HARRIS | VENTURA COUNTY STAR
The U.S. Department of Energy has reached an agreement with the state to demolish its remaining eight buildings at the contaminated Santa Susana Field Laboratory as part of the much-delayed cleanup of the site.
The eight buildings are at the department's former Energy Technology and Engineering Center, which, starting in the 1960s, served as a premiere research facility for the United States during the Cold War.
The energy department and the California Department of Toxic Substances Control, which is overseeing the long-planned remediation of the site outside Simi Valley, announced the agreement this month.
“The actions being announced ... further demonstrate the Department of Energy’s strong commitment to address the environmental legacy from government research in the Cold War era,” U.S Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said in a statement.
“The Trump Administration has shown that environmental stewardship and partnerships, like the ETEC cleanup with the State of California, are critical to the revitalization and reclamation of communities that contributed to the nation’s national security mission," he said.
The 2,850-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory site in unincorporated hills just southeast of Simi Valley at the Los Angeles County border, experienced a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959 when it was the Rocketdyne/Atomics International rocket engine test and nuclear facility. The site also experienced other chemical and radioactive contamination over the years.
The site is now largely owned by aerospace giant Boeing, which, along with the Department of Energy and NASA, are responsible for cleaning up their portions of the site and buffer zones.
18 buildings to be demolished
In May, the energy department reached an agreement with the state toxic substances control department to demolish 10 of its 18 remaining buildings at the site. The agreement called for the energy department to take the buildings' above-ground debris out of state to a low-level radioactive waste facility for disposal, state officials said.
Nine of the 10 buildings have now been safely demolished and work on the 10th is expected to be completed by the end of the year, the energy department said.
Following the May agreement, the energy department signed an amendment to the accord to demolish the eight remaining buildings. That's expected to be completed by September and their above-ground debris will also be taken out of state to low-level radioactive waste facilities for disposal, state officials said.
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The demolition agreement is consistent with California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to prevent and mitigate the impacts of wildfires, such as 2018's devastating Woolsey Fire that started at the Santa Susana site, state officials said.
In the event of another fire there followed by heavy rain, the deteriorating buildings set for demolition could potentially release contamination that could migrate off site, they said.
That risk will be mitigated by the buildings' demolition and the removal of their above-ground debris, they said.
The Woolsey Fire was sparked during high winds by electrical equipment on the Santa Susana site owned by Southern California Edison, an investigation by the Ventura County Fire Department has concluded.
Groundwater remediation plan
The Department of Energy also announced this month that it has published its decision outlining its groundwater remediation plan at the site, where nuclear and liquid metals research was conducted starting in the 1950s.
The plan addresses areas of the site where investigations have indicated the presence of chemical solvents and metals, the energy department said.
"The record of decision describes monitoring and treatment approaches for contaminated groundwater tailored to address the contaminants and potential impacts in each affected area of the site," energy department official John Jones wrote in a Nov. 4 letter to interested parties.
Cleanup activists question the energy department's announcements.
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"I'm concerned that they are only removing the parts of the buildings that are above ground, where there is very little contamination," said Melissa Bumstead of West Hills near the site on the Los Angeles County side.
"The central issue remains the cleanup of the soil, and DOE hasn't even started that, despite a legally binding agreement it and NASA signed with the state in 2010 to have completed it by 2017," she said.
Demolition of the 18 buildings is considered an "early cleanup" interim action, said Russ Edmondson, a spokesman for the state toxic substances control department.
Bumstead said she's also concerned about "the fuzzy language on whether the waste from all of these buildings will be disposed of in a licensed low-level radioactive waste disposal site as required by the cleanup agreement.
"An 'authorized' site could be considerably less protective," she said.
Another activist, William Preston Bowling, agreed.
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"Listen to the name of that building: The Radioactive Materials Handling Facility," said Bowling, founder of the online Aerospace Contamination Museum of Education, acmela.org.
"We are not just mitigating dust for fear of Valley Fever," he said. "These have dangerous particles that need to be cleaned up properly and we need all radioactively contaminated buildings and their associated debris to be sent to an 'authorized' instead of a 'licensed' facility."
Bumstead said she's also "deeply concerned that the department of energy is claiming to have made a 'decision' to not clean up much of the contaminated groundwater and is saying it, the polluter, gets to decide how much of its pollution it will clean up, not the DTSC, which is its regulator."
Completion of a full cleanup of the site is still years away, California Environmental Protection Secretary Jared Blumenfeld said earlier this year.
Mike Harris covers the cities of Moorpark, Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Ventura, as well as transportation countywide. You can contact him at mike.harris@vcstar.com or 805-437-0323.
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