Smoke and ash from the recent Woolsey Fire did not spread radiation or contamination from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County to neighboring communities, two California agencies said Wednesday.
In an interim report, the state Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) and Environmental Protection Agency said field inspections and computer simulations turned up no evidence the fire carried contamination off-site. In addition to fears of smoke from contaminated vegetation and soil, local residents were also concerned that contamination might migrate via rain that followed the fire.
“Taken together, the observations and data from these investigations provide multiple lines of evidence that no radiation or hazardous materials from SSFL were detected in communities following the Woolsey fire,” the report says.
The fire was 100 percent contained as of Nov. 21, after burning almost 97,000 acres and destroying 1,500 buildings, with 20 percent of the charred structures in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. The blaze did burn a section of Santa Susana on Nov. 8, and damaged portions of the site’s stormwater collection and treatment systems.
But interagency teams found facilities that previously handled radioactive or chemical materials were not damaged. Flames did not reach the former Radioactive Materials Handling Facility, the Hazardous Waste Treatment Facility, or the area where the Sodium Reactor Experiment was once located, the agencies said.
Air samples around these areas over three weeks show radiation consistent with background levels, according to the report.
Boeing, NASA, and the Energy Department are responsible for cleanup of the 2,850-acre site, which was home to rocket testing and nuclear power research for more than 50 years. Most of the radioactive work at the site was done inside the largely DOE-controlled Area IV.
The Los Angeles branch of Physicians for Social Responsibility had aired concerns about the potential for off-site spread of radioactive materials from the fire.
“The DTSC has repeatedly lied to our community about the SSFL’s contamination and cleanup. Now they claim they can’t detect any contamination on the site, even though their previous tests found extensive chemical and radioactive toxins there before,” PSR-LA Associate Director Denise Duffield said by email Wednesday.
