A watchdog group is pressing the Department of Energy for clarity on its remediation plans at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory in California, saying a proposed change in approach could delay work and leave contamination in place.

Melissa Bumstead, founder of Parents Against SSFL, told Exchange Monitor that DOE is moving away from the background cleanup required by its agreement with California toward a “multiple lines of evidence” approach. The latter is one of three new soil cleanup alternatives under consideration. Bumstead believes the change could amount to a “risk-based cleanup” that allows more contamination to remain. The group has not received a firm timeline for the outstanding documents and decisions, she said.

The Boeing Company, NASA and the Department of Energy are the three parties responsible for cleaning up the 2,850-acre site located 30 miles from downtown Los Angeles. DOE and its predecessor agencies did decades of nuclear metals research at the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC). The last of the ETEC buildings was torn down in 2021. 

The sprawling SSFL site, between Chatsworth and Simi Valley, was developed for rocket engine testing and nuclear research. Its ETEC site included 10 small reactors used for research from the 1950s into the 1980s.

Cleanup advocates contend that California’s final environmental review, released in June 2023, allows much of the contaminated acreage to remain above background levels, rather than requiring removal of all contamination attributable to site operations. Bumstead said DOE’s soil cleanup in Area IV has not begun and described the work as roughly a decade behind schedule. 

In a March 6, 2025 public scoping meeting Josh Mengers, federal site director for ETEC, called the original lookup-table values “not implementable.”

“It’s a list of reasons why they can’t and they won’t, and nobody is standing up to them,” Bumstead said.

DOE’s 2018 final environmental impact statement estimated $774 million for a soil cleanup alternative intended to meet contamination limits in its 2010 administrative order with California regulators. The estimate covers Area IV and the affected Northern Buffer Zone, not the entire site or all DOE cleanup work.

 In 2018, a California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) timeline projected cleanup work would begin in 2019 and could finish in 2034. DTCS is coordinating with DOE on a draft soil cleanup plan, which DTSC expects DOE to release for public review and comment in 2029. 

DOE’s prime cleanup contractor, North Wind Portage, was awarded a $1.9 million extension in 2023, bringing the value of its environmental work task order at DOE’s portion of SSFL to $66.4 million. CDM Smith, a subcontractor, conducts groundwater testing and supports cleanup planning. Both companies declined to comment.

DOE’s Office of Environmental Management said it is working with DTSC on final cleanup plans for soil and groundwater, each with its own timeline and opportunities for public input. The agency said it and its contractors have remediated or demolished more than 270 structures, including the final 18 DOE-owned buildings in Area IV. Above-ground demolition and waste removal were completed in 2022, and interim groundwater measures have removed more than 97,000 gallons of contaminated groundwater since 2017.

“DOE remains committed to a scientifically sound, implementable cleanup at ETEC,” Mengers said.

EM-ETEC’s October newsletter described ongoing groundwater treatment pilot projects, sampling and monitoring efforts but announced no final soil cleanup decision. The next community meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12.