Fire damage to Rocketdyne test site concerns senator
By Daniel Wolowicz danielw@theacorn.com

Health officials say preliminary results for local air quality during and after the recent Topanga fire do not show unusual levels of toxic contaminants in the air.

Environmentalists, however, say the information being released by the state agencies performing the tests is too ambiguous and unsubstantiated to be considered valid.

Concerned by toxins released by the fire, Sen. Diane Feinstein wrote a letter to Barbara Riordan, interim chair for the California Air Resources Board, asking for an air quality report. The request came after the wildfire scorched more than 2,000 acres of Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in the Simi Hills. The fire damaged 10 buildings on the test field, destroying seven.

Because the test field was used by Rocketdyne, the Defense Department, NASA and the Energy Department to conduct rocket, missile and nuclear testing for nearly 40 years, health officials, politicians and residents were worried that the fire released toxic and radioactive materials trapped in the soil and surrounding brush. “I am deeply concerned thatoxic and radioactive contamination concentrated in vegetation and soicould be transported downwind by the fire and expose the public to health risks,” wrote Feinstein. “The cleanup at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory has been ineffective abest, as the radioactive and toxic contamination in the soil (and thus vegetation) largely remains.”

The fires burned over 27,000 acres throughout East Ventura County and West Los Angeles County in late September and early October.

Sam Atwood, a spokesperson for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, said the agency took several air samples from nearby and downwind from the test field. The levels of toxins, he said, were the same “you would see throughout the Los Angeles basin,” and did not raise any red flags for the agency.

The state agency is analyzing the raw data they collected during the fires and will have a full report by early November, according to Atwood.

The air quality agency doesn’t typically take air samples during a fire. That job is usually left to the local fire department, Atwood said. In this instance, however, because the test site continues to be a source of concern for many residents, the South Coast Air Quality Management District conducted the tests.

Feinstein’s letter and air quality took center stage at the SSFL Workgroup meeting last week in Simi Hills.

“I’m just really irritated with (the South Coast Air Quality Management District) because they issue statements to the press that they found nothing, but when you press them for information, they can’t remember what they tested for or when they tested for it,” said Daniel Hirsch, a member of the workgroup panel and head of the environmental watchdog group Committee to Bridge the Gap.

“I’m a numbers guy,” Hirsch said. “I want to see the numbers. I want to know what they were testing for, and what their threshold detection was and what they considered to be background.”

Both Hirsch and Feinstein want to know what levels of perchlorate, beryllium, dioxins, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), among other chemicals, were detected in the air during and after the fire.

Atwood couldn’t say what exact chemicals his agency had tested for.

Headed by the United States Protection Agency, the SSFL Workgroup meets quarterly to discuss the ongoing effort to clean up the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a 2,668-acre parcel used for rocket and nuclear testing.

The South Coast Air Quality Management District is not a member of the workgroup.

The joint presentation by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District at the SSFL Workgroup meeting last week had environmentalists and area residents feeling frustrated that neither of the two agencies were able to collect air quality data.

“Any county that has in it a major rocket testing and nuclear facility—one that is known to be contaminated—should have the capability to test for those contaminants in case of an emergency, and the county doesn’t have it,” Hirsch said.

Hirsch was frustrated that county and state agencies didn’t act sooner to mitigate health problems.

In a letter written five years ago to then-Gov. Gray Davis, Hirsch warned of the potential health problems caused by a wildfire on the test field.

“This year’s fires have revealed a dangerous situation, which the state’s regulatory agencies do not seem to be addressing—the potential for radioactively and chemically contaminated sites to catch fire, releasing their toxic materials, putting at risk both firefighters and the general public,” Hirsch wrote. “Our state government needs to strengthen its safeguards to protect communities from nuclear and toxic contaminants that can be unleashed by burning.”

Michael Villegas, an air pollution control officer for the county, said the six air quality monitoring systems in Ventura County are geared to detect smog and ozone levels. They do not test for toxic or radioactive material in the air.

Villegas said the closest air quality monitoring device to the SSFL is located at Simi Valley High School. The county does not have a mobile monitoring unit.

The Ventura County Air Pollution Control District did declare unhealthy air quality levels for both the Simi and Conejo Valleys during the fires.

Villegas said his agency was able to convince local high schools to play their football games in Ventura on Saturday morning instead of at their home fields on Friday night.

“We were glad we could convince (the high schools) to move their games,” Villegas said. “It was something we couldn’t get them to do two years ago.”

Jeanne Garcia, a spokeswoman for the DTSC—the agency in charge of cleaning up toxic and hazardous material on the test field— said the fire didn’t increase any health risks to surrounding residents.

“Usually excess inorganics will actually kill plants, hence the occurrence of ‘stressed vegetation,’” Garcia said. “I’m informed that the extent to which inorganics concentrate in plants does not significantly increase the potential health risk over that produced by a fire in general.”

Garcia said DTSC doesn’t handle any radioactive material on the test field. Officials with the South Coast Air Quality Management District said they don’t monitor for radioactive material released in the air.

The United States Department of Energy (DOE) is the agency in charge of cleaning up radioactive contamination on the SSFL. Because of disagreements between the DOE and the EPA several years ago, the DOE doesn’t send representatives to the workgroup meetings.

“None of our structures were damaged, and monitoring to date shows there were no releases of radiological materials,” said Mike Lopez, a representative with the DOE.

Lopez said the DOE will present their findings at their next public meeting at 6:30 p.m. Tues., Nov. 15 at the Grand Vista Hotel in Simi Valley.

The next SSFL Workgroup meeting will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 11 at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center.