The Santa Susana Field Laboratory, including the portion being cleaned up by the Department of Energy, will have a new congressional representative in January 2023 thanks to redistricting.
Following the 2020 Census, the independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission redrew the state’s congressional districts, moving the 2,850-acre Santa Susana Field Laboratory in Ventura County, Calif., to the 26th congressional district from California’s 25th district. Statewide, the most recent redistricting eliminated one Democrat-leaning seat, according to a 538 analysis.
While the 25th congressional district is now represented by Mike Garcia (R-Calif.), Santa Susana and much of Ventura County is moving to the 26th congressional district, represented by incumbent Julia Brownley. Brownley seeks re-election Nov. 8 against Republican Matt Jacobs, a former federal prosecutor.
Garcia is running for re-election in the reconfigured 27th congressional district against Democrat Christy Smith, a former member of the California Assembly.
Garcia won the district by a few hundred votes in 2020 “and that was before redistricting jettisoned the district’s most conservative outpost in Simi Valley, giving Democratic voters even more of an edge,” according to the Calmatters website.
While most of the sprawling Santa Susana site, used for decades for research into rockets and nuclear energy, is the cleanup responsibility of either Boeing or NASA, DOE must remediate the 90 acres it leased within Area IV, which includes the Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC). While DOE has taken down its final 18 buildings, soil remediation work will run into the mid-2030s, according to the state.
In its 2023 budget request documents, DOE has said its share of Santa Susana should be fully remediated by 2045.
