The California Department of Toxic Substances Control expects cleanup work to begin at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) site in 2019 and possibly be finished in 2034, according to the timeline laid out in the agency’s latest monthly report on the radioactively contaminated 2,850-acre property in Ventura County.
The Santa Susana project has been bedeviled by missed deadlines. Cleanup was scheduled to have started this year under agreements between the state and the responsible parties for the site: Boeing, NASA, and the Department of Energy.
“The departure from the 2017 schedule presented in the Consent Order and referred to in the [administrative orders on consent] is due to the recognized complexity of the project, including the rugged physical nature of the site, multiple responsible parties, and the need to complete several phases of investigation to define the nature and extent of impacted soils,” according to the August 2017 update, released on Tuesday.
The state agency recently announced a 45-day extension to the public comment period, to Dec. 7, for its draft program environmental impact report (PEIR) and draft program management plan (PMP) on the cleanup.
DTSC plans to finalize the PEIR in early 2018 and to receive cleanup decision documents from the responsible parties in late 2018 to early 2019.
Remediation schedules will be “further defined” in the planning, the California agency said. “However, if soil cleanup begins in early 2019, remediation of all chemically and radiologically impacted soils is anticipated to be completed by the end 2034,” DTSC said.
The state agency also said DOE is expected to submit a significant groundwater report by the end of the year.
A former site for rocket engine tests and nuclear research, Santa Susana is located 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.
