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Tests have uncovered radioactive contaminants in an open-air burn pit, already rife with chemical pollutants, at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, according to state regulatory officials. Low levels of radium-226 were discovered during testing this fall, said Norman Riley, the field lab project director for California's Department of Toxic Substances Control. "These are very low levels of radionuclides, and certainly the discovery of radium is not that surprising," Riley said Monday. "It's fairly common to find radium in landfills. We don't know if we found all that there is to find, and it doesn't answer the question of where it came from."

California's top environmental cop Monday rejected an offer to list the contaminated Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Lab near Simi Valley as a federal Superfund cleanup site, saying the state can do the job quicker and more thoroughly.

THE federal government long ago recognized that men and women had risked their lives on Cold War and space race research and were owed compensation for illnesses they developed while working with radioactive and toxic materials. Yet, too many Santa Susana Field Lab workers are still waiting for recompense. The Energy Employee Occupational Illness Compensation Program enacted by former President Bill Clinton in 2000 pledged billions of dollars to government employees who got sick from their Cold War-era jobs. But the law was narrowly written and program managers have been legalistic in reviewing claims. As a result, hundreds of men and women who worked at the hilltop lab on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley and became sick, potentially as a result of their work, have been denied compensation worth $150,000 to $250,000.

"The Environmental Protection Agency has a new weapon in the fight against radioactive contamination at a Los Angeles-area lab: Mules. The EPA will use four mules to carry high-tech scanning equipment to detect radiation on steep and rocky terrain at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory. The EPA is conducting a survey of soil and water contamination at the lab near Simi Valley, where rocket engines were tested for years and a partial meltdown of a nuclear reactor took place in 1959. About 500 acres of the lab will be scanned for gamma radiation."

"Knowing how salt travels in water is easy, since it dissolves quickly and evenly. But determining where groundwater carries that salt isn't as simple. Local and state officials whose job it is to keep track of and remove the toxic salt perchlorate are leaning on science to find out how far and fast the Santa Clarita Valley's underground water is traveling - and taking the toxin with it. State and local water officials are redoubling efforts to track the spread of perchlorate, in light of the discovery last year of the salt at Well 201 in Valencia, owned by the Valencia Water Company. A state health official said the finding was a surprise, although local water officials say the discovery was expected. Valencia Water has been testing water from Well 201 every month since first finding perchlorate there in August 2010."