Off-limits and tainted, Santa Susana Field Lab superfund site opens to rare tour

San Fernando Valley residents and activists had a rare chance to tour the vast Santa Susana Field Lab superfund site on Saturday, April 6, during an onsite workshop explaining the efforts to clean the infamous site’s polluted groundwater.

The massive Santa Susana Field Lab (SSFL) is home to sandstone cliffs, oak woodland, meadows, mountain vistas, cougars, deer and bobcats. It’s also the land where scientists conducted cutting-edge nuclear research and rocket testing between 1949 and 2006 to assist the nation’s most ambitious space programs, including the Mercury flights, the Apollo 11 Moon landing and the Space Shuttle missions.

Those activities left the sprawling 2,800-acre lab’s soil and groundwater tainted with hazardous materials, sparking concerns as residential homes and schools sprung up near the once-remote field in the Simi Hills that separate the San Fernando Valley and Simi Valley.

During the hydrogeological tour, dubbed the “Groundwater U Workshop,” visitors were transported between three sites operated by Boeing, NASA, and the Department of Energy, making stops at each to hear presentations about groundwater cleanup efforts.

In Area IV, managed and leased by the Department of Energy from Boeing, Josh Mengers, the site manager of the Energy Technology Engineering Center and project director for the years-long cleanup, told the group of about 75 visitors — including a Los Angeles Daily News team — that contamination seeped into groundwater from the Sodium Disposal Facility. The facility was built to treat waste and has been demolished.

“The main concentrations of TCE that we have found are in the weathered bedrock and that’s where we have been doing interim measures since 2017,” Mengers explained, referring to trichloroethylene, or TCE. “And in these interim measures, we have reduced the concentrations of TCE through pumping — and then shipping off-site for testing and treatment.”

In the past, contamination from the facility was transferred into ponds which eventually seeped into the groundwater, Mengers said.

The presence of TCE is concerning because long-term exposure to the chemical can result in an elevated risk of developing liver and kidney cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We have reduced the concentrations in the wells that we are treating, from over 10,000 parts per billion, down to 500 parts per billion. So we’re hoping that this is a method that is working,” Mengers said.

While the method of pumping out and then shipping the TCE to a treatment facility has proved to be effective, Mengers said, the goal of his team is to install an automated pumping system using solar power instead of doing it manually.

In January, Boeing began extracting tainted soil from the so-called “burn pit,” a six-acre site where Rocketdyne workers dumped large amounts of radioactive pollutants, chemicals, and explosives into an open pit.

While various research and remediation efforts are underway, such as shipping TCE out of the area for treatment, they are mostly pilot programs. The cleanup of the Santa Susana lab area, which is located north of Bell Canyon, hasn’t started yet.

Boeing scientists told the visitors on Saturday that the company installed more than 500 monitoring wells at the site and in surrounding areas. The company also collected 28,000 groundwater samples, and sampled 65 spots where groundwater emerges to the surface through seeps and springs. The company also built a groundwater extraction treatment system that can pump groundwater from wells at the Santa Susana field and remove chemicals.

At the next stop in the tour, researchers who work in Area II, consisting of 409.5 acres and operated by NASA, told the visitors that their investigation revealed the presence of volatile organic compounds, also known as VOCs, in the shallow bedrock.

NASA is working on a pilot program using vapor extraction to remove chemicals from the bedrock in the Alpha Test Area, where researchers found high concentrations of volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, that include a range of chemicals that may have adverse health effects on humans.

Researchers have been using a system called the Bedrock Vapor Extraction that draws vapors from fractures in bedrock in the groundwater. The system pulls air and vapors through the bedrock and up to the surface. Then the chemicals are captured by a carbon filter and the now-treated air — which NASA says is clean — is released into the atmosphere.

NASA’s Bedrock Vapor Extraction system operates on solar power. It’s portable and can operate in other locations at the Santa Susana field.

“This system is mobile, modular and solar-powered,” said Peter Zorba, a NASA project director at the Santa Susana Field Lab. He stood next to the aging and towering Alpha Test Stand 1. Constructed in the 1950s, they were home to rocket testing for NASA’s Space Shuttle program and for U.S. Air Force missiles.

NASA scientists began using the Bedrock Vapor Extraction system in February and have removed nearly 1,000 pounds of TCE from the Alpha area since then.

“I’m going to operate here for 18 months and then I’m going to pack it up, I’m going to turn it off, fold it up and then I’ll move it on trailers … to the next site” at the lab, Zorba said.

The Bedrock Vapor Extraction system “cost a premium,” Zorba said, compared to other technologies that are not portable or mobile.

NASA, Boeing and the U.S. Department of Energy are responsible for remediating the Santa Susana according to a 2007 agreement the parties signed that requires them to clean up the ground and the underground to a level at which people could safely live there — and could even grow vegetables.

One of the tour participants, who introduced himself as Kevin, said he used to work as an electrical engineer at Rocketdyne, the former owner of the Santa Susana field, and he visited the site several times for work.

He grew up in Northridge and still remembered the sense of excitement hearing the roaring sound of rocket testing coming from the lab. But he eventually became concerned about contamination that tainted the sprawling field.

He said he became concerned about the cleanup efforts after he heard about community members who lived near the site and whose children had cancer.

“They tell you some nice things today and that’s good and I’m encouraged by that,” he said. “But you have to look at that in terms of what’s the aggregate of the problem? What is the size of the problem? And are these techniques that they’re using viable for making this safe in a reasonable period?”

All visitors, including the Daily News crew, were asked to sign a release of liability and indemnification agreement, saying that “in consideration of the permission granted by the Boeing Co. and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to enter Boeing’s and NASA’s property located in Ventura County, CA (Santa Susana) … I understand that I am responsible for and assume the risk of my own well-being during my time spent on the Santa Susana property, including without limitation the actions or negligence of other persons, or accidents or illness.”

The tour ended in the afternoon. As visitors headed to the exit, West Hills resident and activist Melissa Bumstead offered visitors a plastic bag filled with instructions on how to properly wash shoes and clothes after visiting the superfund site.

“We are deeply concerned about the contamination,” she said.

Source: Orange County Register