The federal government this week committed $6 billion in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for environmental cleanups at contaminated Department of Energy sites across the country—including the Santa Susana Field Laboratory.

The DOE is slated to receive $54 million for its legally mandated work to clean up the former Energy Technology Engineering Center (ETEC), a 90-acre portion of the field lab's 290-acre Area IV that was used by the government for decades to develop and test components used in metallic sodium systems.

The site is in the hills two miles south of Simi Valley.

"These investments will put Americans to work while cleaning up contamination from the Cold War era," said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu. "It reflects our commitment to future generations as well as to help local economies get moving again."

Around $38.3 million of the $54 million will go to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to complete its longanticipated radiological characterization study of Area IV, believed to be the most contaminated portion of the field lab.

From the mid-1950s until 1988, Area IV was used by the DOE and its contractors for research on nuclear materials and rocket engines. Boeing Company has controlled the majority of the property since 1996.

According to Bill Taylor, DOE spokesperson, the funding will enable the EPA to complete its planning and begin the actual work associated with the survey, which is meant to determine the extent of the contamination at the site so it can be properly removed. The DOE and EPA had previously agreed to have the survey completed by Sept. 30, 2011.

"This (funding) will bring us to a point where we have information needed to complete the (Environmental Impact Statement) and the (Environmental Impact Review) for the state," Taylor said.

Without the financial boost from the federal government, the spokesperson said, the DOE would have been forced to fund the $38 million requested for the survey over a matter of years, likely delaying the work.

"Now that there is a lump sum we can completely take the funding question out of the picture," Taylor said. "The EPA has what they said they need; now it's just about them going out and getting the work done."

According to Taylor, the $15.7 million left over after the survey is paid for will be reserved for future cleanup activities at Area IV pending further discussion with the EPA; the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control; and the other stakeholders, Boeing Co. and NASA.

"Once we can finish the EIR, we'll go from there on how additional work will be performed," he said.

The $6 billion was fought for and won by the Energy Department's Office of Environmental Management, which argued that ongoing cleanup efforts qualify as "shovel ready," the most critical of the criteria required to apply for a portion of the funds approved under February's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Taylor said.

"Many cleanup actions across the country were being held up by budget (limitations) . . . they were shovel ready, we knew what needed to be done, but we didn't have the resources to do it," Taylor said. "Now with this extra money, we're able to get a lot of these projects accelerated and at the same time provide additional jobs to the areas around them."

Taylor acknowledged that even with the $54 million in additional funding, the completion of the cleanup at the field lab is still many years off.

"These cleanups . . . are long and very expensive, and budgets are always a concern," he said. "But there's no question this gets us closer to (our) end goal, where both the department and the regulators say, 'Yes, we've reached the cleanup goal that was set.'"