The U.S. Energy Department plans to continue to pay Boeing for access to a federal facility being prepared for remediation within the aerospace giant’s property at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif.
The access agreement with Boeing would otherwise expire Sept. 30. Energy Department Contracting Officer John Blecher on Monday signed off on the justification for a five-year sole source contract with the company at the highly contaminated Santana Susana site. Boeing, the Energy Department, and NASA are responsible for environmental remediation at the site.
The original contract between DOE and Boeing dates to Dec. 31, 1998, and has a potential value of $212.6 million through the end of this month. The parties extended the agreement several times following its inception.
“There will be no increase in cost for this contract extension, as there is still available ceiling from the previous contract modification,” according to the justification. The modification allows DOE to continue reimbursing Boeing for the costs of providing access to the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC).
The only access to ETEC is through Boeing’s Santa Susana property. The company will continue to provide the Department of Energy with access services including road maintenance and physical security. Boeing will also provide after-hours access, as needed, to DOE, its contractors, and other authorized parties.
Boeing bought most of the 2,850-acre SSFL property, initially used as a remote location for nuclear research and testing rocket engines, from Rockwell International in 1996. That land includes Area IV, home to the Energy Technology and Engineering Center. Reactor operations ended at ETEC in 1980, and all nuclear research stopped there in 1988.
Less than 450 acres of the site is federal property held by NASA.
The responsible parties at Santa Susana await state regulatory approvals to start the final cleanup of the site. The state expects final environmental reports could be issued this year.
After the Energy Department issued its environmental assessment for remediation and closure of ETEC in March 2003, the findings were challenged in court by the Committee to Bridge the Gap, the city of Los Angeles, and the Natural Resources Defense Council. In 2007, a federal judge ruled DOE needed to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the cleanup plan and a record of decision (ROD) that spells out specific actions at Area IV of Santa Susana.
Those documents should be completed by contractor CDM and published in early 2020, according to the Energy Department procurement notice.
The Energy Department has responsibility for cleanup of much of the 470-acre Area IV, including the Energy Technology Engineering Center. The agency has taken down most of its buildings at the site, although some remain to be demolished, and extensive soil remediation is yet to be done.
The Energy Department won’t have a hard estimate for the remaining work until the California Department of Toxic Substances Control releases its program management plan, a road map for cleanup. That document is expected within a few months.
