More than a year after construction was halted at Runkle Canyon due to concerns about possible contamination coming from the former Santa Susana Field Laboratory, city officials are finally getting the help they've been seeking from the California Department of Toxic Substances Control.

Last week the city of Simi Valley received a letter from the DTSC stating they've requested builder KB Home to enter into a voluntary agreement giving DTSC authority to oversee any cleanup at the location.

The action by DTSC is a direct response to a written request made on Oct. 18 by City Manager Mike Sedell on behalf of the City Council, which asked the agency to provide a scientific opinion about recent Runkle Canyon environmental reports.

"This is the first indication that (DTSC) will be fully exploring the possibility of contamination and health risks existing in the entire area of the SSFL," Sedell said. "And that's a very good thing. This is exactly what the City Council has been looking for."

Under the joint partnership of Runkle Canyon LLC, builders KB Home and Lennar proposed the construction of 461 homes on a 1,500-acre site adjacent to the former SSFL. The project, which was first approved by the City Council in 2004, has become a subject of controversy and has created ongoing tensions between residents, city officials and the developer for the past year.

Some residents, including Frank Serafine- who belongs to a group calling itself the Radiation Rangers- have repeatedly said the property is unfit for development. Their assertions are based on the results of independent testing conducted in May that they said revealed elevated levels of poisonous arsenic, nickel and copper.

In July, the city conducted its own set of tests in response to the Radiation Rangers and later said their limited results determined the area posed no immediate threat to the public.

Still, the debate has caused the city to continue pushing for help from the DTSC, the California Department of Health Services and the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Mayor Paul Miller told the Simi Valley Acorn this week that the city has been in need of help from agencies with the scientific expertise to address the contamination concerns.

"It's about time we got the state interested," Miller said. "It took a lot of effort to get their attention. It's a little late but we appreciate it. I'm just hoping now that they'll move quickly."

According to Norman Riley, who became SSFL project director with DTSC in April, KB Home is not required to enter into the voluntary agreement, but doing so would enable DTSC to deal with the concerns sooner than if they simply waited for Runkle Canyon to "come up in the queue."

Parties that enter into the agreement end up paying DTSC oversight costs while the agency performs technical reviews and evaluations of the site.

"We don't want anybody to think that because they pay, they get good news," Riley said. "That is not the case at all. They just happen to get their project moved up because they're able to pay the costs that we incurred."

Riley said it's in the developer's best interest to allow the DTSC oversight of Runkle Canyon.

"We encourage them to consider it because we think we can work through the problems more expeditiously by working cooperatively under the agreement," he said.

"The central lesson to take here is that under the Voluntary Cleanup Agreement, they come in voluntarily and we get to work," Riley continued. "If they choose not to, fine, but that means if we do find a problem, then it occurs more slowly because there could be more legal steps to maneuver."

Keith Jajko, spokesperson for Runkle Canyon LLC, did not specify this week whether the developer would enter into the agreement but said they would continue to cooperate with the city and all interested governmental agencies.

"Runkle Canyon LLC will be providing DTSC with the results of previous environmental testing performed at Runkle Canyon and expects that upon completing its review of such information, DTSC will conclude that the site has not been adversely impacted by SSFL and is safe for residential development," Jajko said.

While city officials and concerned residents are both hailing DTSC's involvement in Runkle Canyon to be somewhat of a victory, Serafine said he'd still like to see a new Environmental Impact Report conducted and to have the site cleaned up to EPA standards.

"It's a victory, but I want to see KB now come up to the plate," Serafine said. "If they want to stay in our community, we want them to clean it up now. We're going to have to see what they come up with in their tests."

Serafine said that relations between the Radiation Rangers and the City Council would probably improve "as long as they're willing to return (the property) to parkland and just leave it alone."

City Councilmember Glen Becerra said that's not the case.

"I'll reiterate it again," Becerra said. "I don't care ultimately if that project gets built or not. If it gets built the way it was designed, great. If it gets left as open space, that's even better.

"My concern isn't KB Home," he said. "My most immediate concerns are public health and the existing residents that live there today."

Becerra said he welcomes DTSC's involvement, and if the city allows the Runkle Canyon project to move forward, it will be based on "solid science."

"Our work has paid off finally," Becerra said. "We wanted some definitive answers, and hopefully this will lead us to that."