The California Department of Toxic Substances Control expects cleanup work to begin at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) site in 2019 and possibly be finished in 2034, according to the timeline laid out in the agency’s latest monthly report on the radioactively contaminated 2,850-acre site in Ventura County.
The Santa Susana project has been bedeviled by missed deadlines. Cleanup was scheduled to have started this year under agreements between the state and the responsible parties for remediation at the former multidisciplinary research site: Boeing, NASA, and the Department of Energy.
“The departure from the 2017 schedule presented in the Consent Order and referred to in the [administrative orders of consent] is due to the recognized complexity of the project, including the rugged physical nature of the site, multiple responsible parties, and the need to complete several phases of investigation to define the nature and extent of impacted soils,” according to the state’s August update, released on Tuesday.
In August, DOE filed a biological assessment with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the California Fish and Wildlife Service in compliance with the Endangered Species Act. The monthly report notes that DOE and DTSC are currently discussing the federal agency’s white paper on treatment of chlorinated solvents.
DTSC recently announced a 45-day extension to the public comment period, to Dec. 7, for its draft program environmental impact report (PEIR) and draft program management plan (PMP) on the cleanup.
A former site for rocket engine tests and nuclear energy research, Santa Susana is located 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Boeing owns most of the property.
Final closure plans for DOE’s Hazardous Waste Management Facility (HWMF) and Radioactive Material Handling Facility (RMHF) at Santa Susana won’t be made until the PEIR and PMP documents are issued, DTSC said in the update. The HWMF started operating in 1978 and was fully approved as a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act treatment and storage facility in 1983 for on-site nonradiological chemical waste. It stopped operating in 1997. The RMHF was built in 1959 to manage radioactive waste and its lifespan was about 50 years.
DTSC plans to finalize the PEIR in early 2018 and to receive cleanup decision documents from the responsible parties in late 2018 to early 2019.
Remediation schedules will be “further defined” in the planning, the California agency said. “However, if soil cleanup begins in early 2019, remediation of all chemically and radiologically impacted soils is anticipated to be completed by the end 2034, DTSC said.
DTSC also said DOE is expected to submit a significant groundwater report by the end of the year. Boeing, DOE and NASA are also preparing a final air monitoring work plan.
