SIMI VALLEY : DOE Plans to Cut Lab Cleanup Funds

Federal officials announced Thursday that $960,000 will be cut from next year’s $10.7-million budget for ongoing cleanup operations at Rockwell International’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley.

U.S. Department of Energy officials said it was too early to assess how the budget cuts will affect various cleanup projects at the lab site, a sector of which was formerly used in nuclear projects.

“We’re still evaluating what the impacts will be,” said John Belluardo, a DOE spokesman in San Francisco. “It hasn’t been determined if low-priority projects will have to be postponed.”

The agency’s announcement came just one week after a report that low levels of tritium, a form of radioactive hydrogen, were found in a ground-water test well about 100 feet northwest of the lab’s property line. However, environmental officials said that the tritium levels are too low to pose a health risk to the public and that the ground water is not used for drinking.

Rockwell is engaged in a multi-year cleanup of mostly low-level chemical and radioactive contamination from more than 30 years of nuclear research at the Santa Susana test site.

Belluardo said the DOE budget cuts are part of an effort by the agency to create a reserve fund. He said a 10% across-the-board cut is in effect at DOE facilities nationwide.

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) said Thursday that he has sent a letter to Adm. James D. Watkins, head of the DOE, urging him to restore all the cleanup funds.

“The thing that concerns me is I don’t want to see any delays” in the cleanup, Gallegly said.