Politics & Government

Field Lab Groundwater Cleanup May Take Centuries, Official Says

Decontamination of the soil at the research site in the Simi Hills west of Chatsworth might not be finished by a 2017 deadline.

It may take centuries to clean up the groundwater at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the site of a 1959 partial nuclear meltdown, a state official says.

Decontamination of the soil at the research site in the Simi Hills west of Chatsworth might not be finished by a 2017 deadline, Mark Malinowski of the state Department of Toxic Substances Control told about 100 people during a cleanup update in Simi Valley on Wednesday.

“It’s a very aggressive schedule to get to 2017, and many things have to happen correctly in order to get there,” said Malinowski, according to the Ventura County Star.

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The groundwater cleanup will take “a lot longer ... decades, possibly centuries to complete,” Malinowski said. “Groundwater is an extremely difficult thing to clean up. This contamination we’re dealing with did not happen overnight.”

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