Outsider Emerges as Vocal Field Lab Foe

Although she was elected to the state Legislature five years ago, some Ventura County residents may have never heard of Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl.

That should come as no surprise since she represents another district in another county.

But over the last few weeks, Kuehl, a Santa Monica Democrat, has emerged as one of the leading and most vocal advocates for critics of Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley.

It was Kuehl’s office that last month released a 1997 study that found elevated lung cancer rates around the 2,600-acre research facility. Kuehl alleged that the state Department of Health Services suppressed the study.

In addition, she charged that health officials worked with Rocketdyne to dissolve an independent committee coordinating health and environmental inquiries into the facility. Health department officials vehemently deny both accusations.

But Kuehl finally found a receptive ear in Gov. Gray Davis, who this week ordered an independent investigation into the allegations and removed the department from overseeing the work of the citizens’ committee.

It was a stunning success for opponents of Rocketdyne, which Kuehl attributed to her concern for constituents and the hard work of activists.

“I’ve always been about removing barriers to get the people what they deserve,” said Kuehl, 58. “And what they deserve here are answers and an assurance that they’re living in an area that’s safe. . . . I think there is a real problem there that we need to take a good, hard look at.”

But just as important is the change in leadership in Sacramento with the departure of former Gov. Pete Wilson.

“There’s been a change in guard at the top, which has brought a whole new dynamic to Sacramento,” Kuehl said.

Suddenly, those who believed that they hadn’t been heard in the debate over whether Rocketdyne’s testing had fouled the environment and threatened the health of residents in nearby communities have a champion. Or two.

For those who don’t know her, Kuehl as a child played Zelda on “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.” In her five years in Sacramento, she has built a reputation as a tough opponent who has moved quickly up the ladder of power.

The Legislature’s first openly lesbian member, she served two years as pro tem speaker of the Assembly. She sits on four legislative committees and chairs the powerful judiciary panel. During her tenure, she has helped pass legislation extending protections for gays and lesbians, and toughening sanctions against abusive spouses. She recently introduced legislation to license Hollywood agents.

Kuehl was also instrumental in halting the Department of Health Services’ plan to develop the Ward Valley nuclear waste facility near the Colorado River.

But she is no party-liner. She has publicly disagreed with other Democrats.

“She’s definitely the right person to fight for you,” said Richard Katz, a former assemblyman and Rocketdyne critic. “She takes her job very seriously and isn’t afraid to jump into important issues that impact her district.”

Kuehl said she first heard about contamination and the possible health effects stemming from decades of nuclear and chemical testing at Rocketdyne’s field lab shortly after taking office in 1994.

It was then that she also began to learn more about problems that the independent oversight committee coordinating studies at the lab site was having with the state health department and Rocketdyne.

“From the beginning, I got an earful,” Kuehl said. “I started to hear quite a bit about these unusual attempts by the Department of Health Services in their work with Rocketdyne.”

It was during her drive to stop the department’s plan to develop the Ward Valley dump that Kuehl began working closely with the anti-nuclear organization Bridge the Gap.

At issue were concerns that locating a nuclear disposal site near the Colorado River could have potentially disastrous effects on the environment and pollute one of Southern California’s few drinking water supplies.

Working with the organization, Kuehl found that the department’s terms for purchasing the land to build the dump were illegal and called in the federal government. Federal officials ended up nixing the proposal.

With that success, Kuehl said she was able to develop credibility among environmental activists and whistle-blowers who would later turn to her with complaints about Rocketdyne and the state health department.

“It would have been easy for her to pass this off as just being paranoid because we didn’t have the proof,” said Bridge the Gap organizer Dan Hirsch, who also co-chairs the independent committee. “But she listened and took us seriously.”

Kuehl directed her staff to begin looking into the allegations. Last month, Hirsch delivered a number of internal department documents to the legislator that he said backed his belief that health officials were working with Rocketdyne to dissolve the committee and suppress critical information.

The assemblywoman first took the information to Grantland Johnson, state secretary of health and human services, and later to Davis before making it public.

Kuehl said she is unsure whether the same information would have been as readily received during the Wilson administration.

“Once Grantland Johnson was appointed, we felt more comfortable going ahead with this,” she said. “None of this happened on Johnson’s or Davis’ watch, so I think there was more of a willingness to get involved.”

However, at least one Ventura County legislator is concerned that Kuehl’s aggressive attack on the Department of Health Services may actually hinder efforts to launch a community health study.

State Sen. Cathie Wright (R-Simi Valley), whose district includes the field lab site, said she has been pursuing a proposal to fund such a study and worries now that excluding the department from the process can be a damaging setback.

“I want to press forward with the issue and this makes it a little more difficult,” she said. “I don’t think that we should dwell on the past and I don’t think that browbeating the department is going to get us any further along in the process.”

However, Kuehl and Rocketdyne critics said this is the only way to get a fair analysis into whether testing at the lab resulted in any long-term health effects in communities surrounding the mountaintop site.

“I have no doubt that this was the right thing to do,” Kuehl said. “I don’t think there’s any other way to get a fairer look into whether this contamination has had any effect on people’s health.”