Cleanup of toxic ‘burn pit’ at Santa Susana Field Lab will start in the spring

For decades, a 6-acre site known as the “burn pit” at the Santa Susana Field Lab near the crest of the Simi Hills at the western border of the San Fernando Valley was used by Rocketdyne workers who dumped large amounts of radioactive pollutants, chemicals and explosives into the open pit. At times, workers burned contaminated waste in the pit.

Today state officials are pressuring Boeing Co., which now owns Area I where the burn pit is located, to remediate and clean up the site.

The Area 1 Burn Pit contains a plethora of toxic chemicals and metals that are above background levels in some soil samples, including PCBs, trichloroethene, dioxins, mercury and zinc, according to officials at the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, or DTSC, which oversees the cleanup efforts at the Santa Susana site.

DTSC officials worry that severe storms, wildfires, and winds triggered by climate change could destroy the material that is covering the burn pit area, and expose wildlife and the environment to its highly toxic chemicals.

DTSC recently stated, “There is a clear and imminent threat to wildlife and other ecological receptors and an immediate need to conduct soil remediation, in order to prevent the potential for harmful run-off and migration of hazardous substances from the Site.”

Boeing is expected to begin remediation efforts in the burn pit next spring.

But Melissa Bumstead, who co-founded the advocacy group “Parents Against SSFL” — or Santa Susana Field Lab — was skeptical that remediation of the burn pit zone would be effective. She claimed that Boeing had “no intention to clean it up to health-protective standards. They see it being so dangerous — but then they are not protecting human health with that cleanup. They are only doing it to protect wildlife.”

Bumstead also questioned whether Boeing would remediate the entire 6-acre area or partially remediate by cleaning up hot spots that are most contaminated.

Allison Wescott, a spokeswoman for DTSC, wrote in an email on Tuesday, Nov. 28, “DTSC is requiring Boeing to clean up chemicals to ecological risk-based screening levels and radionuclides to background. Boeing will complete soil cleanup at the Area I Burn Pit during the sitewide cleanup, consistent with the final remedy decision.”

The Area 1 Burn Pit is located at the Santa Susana Field Lab near the crest of the Simi Hills at the western border of the San Fernando Valley. The 2,849-acre field laboratory is the former home to a rocket engine testing site and nuclear research facility and is located near populated Simi Valley, West Hills and Chatsworth.

The Santa Susana site today is owned by the Boeing Company, the U.S. Department of Energy and NASA. The official cleanup of the entire field has not started. For years, the burn pit zone has been covered with geotextile fabric used in civil construction projects.

According to a letter filed by Boeing with DTSC earlier this year, the cleanup is expected “to prevent clear and imminent threats to ecological receptors. These threats to ecological health (include) toxicity of certain metals, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), dioxins, pentachlorophenol, and trichloroethene (TCE), as well as radionuclides above background levels.”

In 2018, the massive Woolsey Fire overtook the Santa Susana site and forced nearly 75,000 households to evacuate. A study released in 2021 showed that highly radioactive particles landed in nearby communities of Thousands Oaks as the vast fire burned thousands of acres from Ventura County to Malibu.

The study’s findings went against findings by DTSC, which found that the fire didn’t release any hazardous materials linked to the contamination at the site.