BILL ANALYSIS
AB 102
Page 1
Date of Hearing: April 22, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS
Kevin De Leon, Chair
AB 102 (Smyth) - As Introduced: January 8, 2009
Policy Committee: WPW Vote:10-0
Urgency: No State Mandated Local Program:
No Reimbursable: No
SUMMARY
This bill would require the director of the Department of Parks
and Recreation (DPR) to establish the Santa Susana State Park
Advisory Committee (committee). Specifically, this bill:
1)States the Legislature's intent to develop the Santa Susana
Field Laboratory (SSFL) in Ventura County into a state park
and to allow governmental, nonprofit, and community
organizations to participate in the planning and development
of that site as a state park.
2)By January 1, 2102, requires the director of DPR to establish
the committee to advise on the potential park site's general
plan.
3)Specifies that the director shall select the membership of the
committee and indicates the types of general organizations and
groups from which the director is to select those members.
4)Requires DPR to coordinate implementation of the SSFL park
project and to consider recommendations made by the committee
and take other actions to determine public and local
preference for development of the park.
5)States that SSFL shall not be transferred to the state and
shall not become a park until the site has been cleaned, per
current law.
FISCAL EFFECT
1)Minor one-time costs, probably less than $50,000 by 2011-12,
to the DPR to establish and convene the advisory committee.
AB 102
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(GF, State Parks and Recreation Fund (SPRF), or available
resources bond proceeds.)
2)Moderate costs, perhaps $200,000 annually starting in 2011-12,
to the DPR to provide staff and resources to the advisory
committee as part of the development of a general plan for the
proposed Santa Susana State Park Unit. (GF, SPRF, or
available resource bonds proceeds.)
COMMENTS
1)Rationale . The author contends that the 2,850-acre SSFL site,
even when fully remediated for hazardous waste and radioactive
waste contamination, will be unsuitable for any residential or
commercial development, and that the cleanup of the site
offers an opportunity to develop a new unit of the state park
system, the Santa Susana State Park, to, among other things,
preserve critical wildlife habitat and historical and cultural
artifacts.
2)Background . The SSFL was a rocket and nuclear reactor test
facility located in eastern Ventura County near the boundary
with Los Angeles County. When the SSFL opened in the
mid-1940s, it was a remote facility high in the mountains
northwest of Los Angeles. The cities and communities of Simi
Valley, Santa Susana, Oak Park, Chatsworth, West Hills, Canoga
Park, Thousand Oaks and Agoura Hills, are now all located
within five miles of the SSFL site.
Today, all nuclear research and most rocket testing has
stopped and the site is now owned primarily by the Boeing
Company. Over several years, there were several accidents,
spills and releases at the SSFL site that resulted in
radioactive and hazardous waste contamination of the
groundwater, surface water and soil on and around the site.
3)Recent Legislation and Actions .
a) SB 990 (Kuehl) - Chapter 729, Statutes of 2007
established a process by which the level of hazardous waste
and radioactive remediation at the SSFL site is to be
determined and achieved before the site can be used for
other purposes. In January 2008, the Resources Agency and
CalEPA signed a letter of intent with the Boeing Company in
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which Boeing agreed to clean up the SSFL property and to
transfer the property to the state for open space or
parkland after the property has been fully cleaned up.
According to CalEPA, the state intends to negotiate a
formal agreement with Boeing that is consistent with both
SB 990 and the letter of intent by July of this year.
b) AB 1842 (Smyth, 2008), which, in its final version, was
identical to this bill, was held in this committee.
4)Advisory Committee . This bill requires the DPR Director to
select persons to be members of the advisory committee that
represent local, state and federal agencies, environmental,
historic preservation and cultural organizations, museums,
educational institutions and organizations, individuals and
private sector entities, and community-based organizations.
5)Potential State Liability . If the SSFL site is cleaned up to
the state's satisfaction and the site is transferred from
Boeing to the state, the transfer agreement should, among
other things, immunize the state from liability arising from
future detection of hazardous waste or radioactive waste
contamination at the site that resulted from SSFL activities
over the decades. If such immunization is not a part of the
transfer agreement, the state, as owner of the SSFL site,
risks becoming a responsible party for the contamination and
may be responsible for, among other things, paying for
remediation of the newly-detected contamination.
Analysis Prepared by : Jay Dickenson / APPR. / (916) 319-2081