Rocketdyne Finds No Neighborhood Contamination

Rocketdyne officials on October 18 released off-site soil-testing results from a seven-month study by the independent laboratory Ogden Environmental of San Diego. According to the report, there no evidence of hazardous materials' migrating from the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (CA) to the nearby neighborhood of Bell Canyon. Bell Canyon homeowners requested the soil testing in March.

The contaminated field lab is the site of a multimillion-dollar cleanup effort and the focus of a several property-damage and personal-injury lawsuits. A UCLA study released a year ago found a greater-than-expected cancer death rate among some Rocketdyne workers.

Because residents--not state or federal regulators--requested the tests, Rocketdyne had an outside contractor take 24 soil samples from surrounding properties without approval from various regulators.

However, officials with the federal U.S. EPA and the state's Department of Toxic Substances Control and health department reportedly obtained "split samples" from the same sites that Ogden tested. The EPA said it had not finished reviewing the samples.

The previous news feature was adapted from an article appearing the October 20 edition of The Los Angeles Times.