Judge: Santa Susana Field Lab Cleaning Inadequate

A U.S. District Court Judge ruled Wednesday that a plan to clean up part of the Santa Susana Field Lab in Simi Valley violates a federal law and ordered an environmental review before it is deemed safe. Judge Samuel Conti said the cleanup plan adopted by the U.S. Department of Energy five years ago violated the National Environmental Policy Act and other federal laws. Residents and environmentalists have long called the plan inadequate, a view also expressed by Conti in his ruling. “Area IV is known to be radiologically contaminated and, in fact, was the location of at least one well-known nuclear meltdown (in 1959),” he wrote. “It is located only miles away from one of the largest population centers in the world and, in all probability, will become part of that center. … It is difficult to imagine a situation where the need for such an assurance could be greater.” Conti ordered the Energy Department to create and new plan and barred the transfer of ownership until the more thorough environmental study is conducted. The hilltop site had been used for nuclear research and rocket engine testing from the 1940s to the 1980s. The lab is owned by Rocketdyne Propulsion and Power Division, owed by Boeing Corp., although the Energy Department is charged with the cleanup.