Water board's vote clears path for Boeing's clean up of toxic site near Simi Valley

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board on Thursday cleared the path for aerospace giant Boeing to finally clean up soil on portions of the contaminated Santa Susana Field Lab under a settlement with the state.

The board unanimously adopted a memorandum of understanding that will establish the processes it will use to evaluate the quality of Boeing's stormwater discharges from the toxic site outside Simi Valley once the company completes the soil cleanup.

The MOU is separate from the settlement agreement between the California Department of Toxic Substances Control and Boeing but related to the long-delayed remediation.

Had the board not adopted it, the settlement announced in May could not have been enacted, said Jared Blumenfeld, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency. Blumenfeld attended the board's nine-hour hearing at Santa Clarita City Hall in Valencia.

Adoption of the MOU means that "we can get the cleanup done, and we can get it done right," he said.

The toxic substances control department, which is part of the EPA, is overseeing the cleanup.

Boeing owns most of the 2,850-acre site, which experienced a partial nuclear meltdown in 1959 when it was the Rocketdyne/Atomics International rocket engine test and nuclear facility.

The site was a premiere research facility for the United States during the Cold War and also experienced other chemical and radioactive contamination over the years.

Under consideration: Ventura County weighs legal action in cleanup of former nuclear test site near Simi

The EPA says that under the stringent settlement, Boeing is tasked with cleaning up radioactive contamination in the soil to "background" level, the strictest cleanup standard. The pact establishes rigorous remediation protocols and timelines for Boeing, the EPA says.

But Boeing is only responsible for remediating portions of the site, said Dan Hirsch, a leading cleanup activist.

Fierce opposition

The water board adopted the MOU despite dozens of public speakers who urged it not to on grounds that the settlement would allegedly leave at least 90% of Boeing's contaminated soil not cleaned up.

"I don't believe you can say with a straight face that this Boeing deal serves the public interest," said Jeff Ruch, Pacific director of nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

The state refutes the contention that 90% or more of the soil would not be remediated.

"This crude estimate is factually incorrect," Meredith Williams, director of the toxic substances control department, told the board online.

Her department "will require Boeing to remove all soil necessary to achieve the target results," she said.

Prior to voting, board member Marissa Christiansen said she had agonized over whether to support or oppose the MOU.

"I was thinking to myself that I didn't want perfection to be the enemy of progress," she said. "That I wanted us to hopefully push forward just to get the cleanup started for the sake of this community."

But given all the public comments against the MOU, she said she also had to consider "deferring to community interest, because it's their lives and not ours."

In the end, Christiansen voted to adopt the MOU.

Undermines: Cleanup activists say new agreement with Boeing weakens field lab remediation

Board member David Nahai echoed Christiansen's remarks.

"I think it's incumbent upon us to not let the perfect be the enemy of the good, but to move forward," he said. "I want to see movement. I want to get going. I don't want to have a situation in which we return to a position of limbo."

Following the MOU's approval, Williams said in a statement that the board's action "clears the way for a stringent cleanup at one of the nation’s most polluted sites and is a monumental step forward after decades of stalled progress."

Boeing too praised the memo's adoption.

Spokesman Connor Greenwood said that the MOU and the settlement agreement "create a comprehensive framework that will provide regulatory certainty and a clear, accelerated path forward for Boeing’s cleanup at the former Santa Susana Field Laboratory."

The framework "reflects Boeing’s deep commitment to safety, sustainability and the communities where we live and work," Greenwood said.

But Hirsch, who spoke at the hearing, said Friday he was devastated, but not surprised, that the board adopted the MOU.

"I've spent 43 years on this, and Boeing got everything it wanted," said Hirsch, president of the Committee to Bridge the Gap, a nonprofit nuclear policy organization.

"It was crystal clear that not an ounce of the testimony mattered," he said.

Cleanup long delayed

A smaller portion of the site is administered by NASA. The federal Department of Energy had buildings there but has since demolished them.

The two agencies are not part of the settlement agreement with Boeing but under previous legally binding pacts with the state, they are responsible for cleaning up other portions of the site.

Under the 2007 and 2010 agreements, the remediation of soil and groundwater was supposed to have been completed by the end of 2017. But it hasn't begun yet.

Williams said under the new settlement, Boeing's part of the cleanup will still take several years to begin.

If Boeing completes its soil cleanup to the water board's satisfaction, the board will then consider lifting the company's pollutant discharge elimination system permit, which regulates its surface water discharges.

If the permit is lifted, that would result in Boeing's discharges no longer being regulated, according to cleanup activists.

Since the settlement doesn't cover all of Boeing's soil, stormwater runoff from those portions could still be toxic but not monitored, the activists say.

Past runoff has been contaminated and has gone into neighboring communities and waterways, they say.

In a related development, Ventura County is partnering with Simi Valley, Los Angeles County, and the city of Los Angeles to consider litigation if the cleanup isn't done to background levels.

The Ventura County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the partnership Aug. 2 in closed session. County Counsel Tiffany North announced the action in open session.

Mike Harris covers the East County cities of Moorpark, Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, as well as transportation countywide. You can contact him at mike.harris@vcstar.com or 805-437-0323.

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This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Water board clears path for Boeing clean up of toxic site near Simi Valley