The California Department of Toxic Substances Control is “making every effort” to publish this summer the final versions of two long-awaited environmental reports for cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a spokesman said recently.
The state agency oversees remediation of the 2,800-acre site in Ventura County, about 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, by NASA, Boeing, and the U.S. Department of Energy.
The state received plenty of feedback on the drafts of the Program Management Plan (PMP) and the Program Environmental Impact Report (PEIR) after they were issued in September 2017.
“Thousands of comments were received, including letters and petitions,” DTSC spokesman Russ Edmondson said in a Wednesday email. The agency is considering all comments it received, he added.
The final PMP will provide a road map to remediate the sprawling property once used for rocket testing and nuclear research. The PEIR will analyze potential environmental effects caused by remediation of soil and groundwater at the site.
The final version of each report will address the submitted comments and comply fully with the administrative orders of consent (AOC) between the state and federal agencies on SSFL, Edmondson said. The AOC agreement defines the process for characterization and the cleanup at Santa Susana. The current timeline calls for getting the reports, initially expected last year, out this summer, he added.
Remediation plans envisioned in an earlier 2007 consent order on the obligations of parties at the site, and the 2010 administrative orders on consent, were set up without knowing the full nature or extent of contamination and the ensuing cleanup, Edmondson said. The “extensive field investigation work” since then provided more information on what steps are needed to protect human health and the environment, he added.
Meanwhile, the state has still not received an Energy Department reply to an Oct. 16, 2019, letter from DTSC Director Meredith Williams seeking a copy of a formal demolition plan for 18 buildings remaining within the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC) at Santa Susana, the state spokesman said.
Williams said DTSC and the California Environmental Protection Agency are worried about DOE’s statement in a September record of decision that building demolition could start within weeks. California officials said they would first have to sign off on detailed plans for teardown. The letter sought a reply by Oct. 21, 2019.
Much cleanup work has taken place in the past 25 years and this resulted in removal and offsite disposal of over 51,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil, bedrock, sediments, and other material from SSFL site, the state spokesman said.
The Energy Department could not immediately be reached for comment.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg reported Jan. 17 the state toxics agency also opposes NASA’s cleanup plan for its portion of the Santa Susana site. Public interest groups have also called the space agency’s soil remediation planning inadequate.
The Physicians for Public Responsibility-Los Angeles and other citizen groups will meet with the California EPA next month to discuss concerns about Santa Susana remediation, Denise Duffield, associate director of PSR-LA, said in a Tuesday email.
