Senators Feinstein and Boxer Urge the EPA and the Department of Energy to Fulfill Commitments Regarding Santa Susana Field Laboratory Cleanup
March 15, 2002

Washington, DC - U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) today urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to stand by their earlier commitments to oversee the cleanup of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Simi Valley, California.

In separate letters to EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and DOE Secretary Spencer Abraham, the Senators expressed dismay over recent reports that the DOE was abandoning a plan to have the EPA perform an independent radiation survey of the site using the EPA's Superfund standards. Furthermore, the DOE recently announced a 30% reduction for the cleanup funding in its proposed FY2003 budget.

"It is our understanding that the DOE and EPA entered into an agreement in 1995 that all contaminated DOE sites would be cleaned up consistent with EPA's Superfund standards," Senators Feinstein and Boxer wrote. "We are deeply concerned that this commitment now appears in question."

The SSFL site was used since the 1950s by the federal government to test nuclear reactors and rocket engines. Over the years as the Los Angeles suburbs expanded, the chemical and radioactive contamination from the site became increasingly hazardous to the surrounding neighborhoods. In May 2001, the EPA sent a letter to Senator Feinstein promising to go forward with an independent radiation survey of the site.

"Promises were made to us and this community," the Senators wrote. "It was, after all, the federal government that contaminated this site, and it was the federal government that promised to clean up this site consistent with EPA standards in order to protect the public health and environment. We expect the government to live up to these commitments, and we ask your direct intervention to assure that this is the case."

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