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Comment period to end on Field Lab cleanup plan report
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More from EnvironmentThe public comment period will close Saturday on a report detailing the type and extent of chemical pollution in an area of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory that was home to the sodium reactor experiment complex and a leach field.
The report, drafted for the state Department of Toxic Substance Control, is the first of 10 that will detail the extent of contamination and offer recommendations for cleanup.
The department oversees the cleanup of chemical pollution at the former rocket engine and nuclear test site in the hills south of Simi Valley.
While cleanup work has taken place in the past, the new reports focus on facilities on the 2,800-acre property that required permits from the department to operate, department spokeswoman Carol Northrup said.
The official title of the report is the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Facility Investigation report, and it found 13 locations in the area that are candidates for measures that would control the migration of chemical contaminants.
The area encompassed in the report also includes the old conservation yard and the new conservation yard in the portion of the field laboratory known as Area IV. It is where nuclear work took place at the facility.
Previous studies of the area however turned up chemical contamination in the form of PCBs, solvents, dioxin and other waste, Northrup said.
"We went through the shorter process of removal and took out 14,000 cubic yards of soil," she said. "We went down to bedrock."
The public comment period for this report was extended 30 days to Aug. 25 after the department received requests from the public to do so.
The report can be viewed online at www.dtsc.ca.gov/sitecleanup/projects/upload/SSSFL_RFI_groups62.pdf. Comments can be e-mailed to Laura Rainey, senior engineering geologist, at LRainery@dtsc.ca.gov.
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