2007 EPA Superfund Evaluation of SSFL
On December 6, 2007, EPA announced its recommendation to list SSFL on the National Priorities List.
- EPA Letter to Governor Schwarzenegger
- EPA Decision
- EPA Preliminary Assessment/Site Inspection Report
In July, 2007, EPA provided additional information on its plans for a Superfund Evaluation of SSFL.
On April 12, 2007 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that is will conduct a third Superfund Evaluation of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL), including the site of the DOE operations in Area IV.
The Preliminary Assessment (PA)/Site Inspection (SI) is used by EPA to evaluate the potential for a release of hazardous substances from the site. During the site assessment process, EOA collects data to identify, evaluate and rank hazardous waste sites based on specific criteria.
The Hazard Ranking System (HRS) is a numerically based screening system that uses information from the initial, limited investigations (PA/SI) to assess the relative potential of sites to pose a threat to human health or the environment. The HRS score determines the eligibility for placing the site on the National Priorities list (NPL or Superfund). The PA/SI for SSFL is expected to be completed by the end of 2007. The results of the investigation will be made available to the public at the Simi Valley Library or upon request from the EPA.
In the past EPA has evaluated different areas of SSFL. This is the first time that EPA investigated the entire “footprint” of the SSFL.
The last time EPA evaluated SSFL for Superfund status was in 2000-2003. At that time, it limited its review to the radiological impacts in Area IV and assigned a score of 1.08 using the Hazard Ranking System (HRS).
