The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 175

VALLEY San Fernando, Conejo, Santa Clarita Simi Valleys Thursday, February 4, 1982 006 Angeles STutlCfi Part IX U.S. Asks Atom Safety Detailing AL HARKADO Los Angeles Times Eucalyptus trees along freeway are considered part of Camarillo heritage but stumps show that falling trees have become problem, causing dispute. Nuclear Panel to Check Rockwell's Assertion That There's No Danger By MARK A. STEIN, Times Staff Writer Federal authorities have ordered a Canoga Park company, one of the largest handlers of radioactive material in the state, to document its assertion that even the worst possible accident at its DeSoto Avenue facility would not endanger nearby residents. In a letter dated Dec.

17, 1981, and made available to The Times last week, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) asked Rockwell International to disclose the assumptions it made in calculating how much radiation would be released in a series of hypothetical accidents at its Energy Systems Group headquarters. Rockwell defined the conditions under which the accidents might occur. The predictions were based on normal operations at the plant, said Marlin E. Remley, health, safety and radiation services director at the Rockwell division facility. Federal authorities want to confirm the company's findings by having the NRC review those assumptions and conduct its own analysis, according to the NRC letter.

Questions Raised The NRC also asked Rockwell to clear up 27 alleged errors or omissions in its 149-page "emergency contingency plan." Most of the questions involved the description of training procedures, radiation detection devices and the chain of command in the event of an accident. Rockwell was originally given until Jan. 16 to respond to the NRC concerns, but R. G. Page, chief of the NRC's uranium fuel licensing branch in Washington, D.C., said the company asked and received an extension to March 12.

Companies which handle enough nuclear material to require a special federal license are required to routinely file emergency contingency plans. There are five such firms in California, but only one in Los Angeles County. Rockwell's federal license expires in September. The presence of the Rockwell plant in a residential area was a major reason the city Planning Department advised the City Council last year to consider special zoning laws to keep radioactive material handlers out of heavily populated areas. The council's Planning and Environment Committee is scheduled to review that recommendation Feb.

16. Bomb-Grade Uranium Nearly 29,000 people live in the four census tracts surrounding the Rockwell facility, according to preliminary 1980 census figures. Among other radioactive materials, the company is licensed to store and use up to 3,300 pounds of bomb-grade uranium metal, which can ignite spontaneously. The company shapes the fuel into fuel elements for research reactors across the nation. It also conducts some nuclear reactor tests at its research labs in the Santa Susana Mountains between Chatsworth and Simi Valley.

Rockwell International said in a report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last August that the most serious hypothetical accident, a "criticality" accident, would cause a radiation release of 1.35 rem at the edge of its property. Please see NUCLEAR, Page 13 Hopes Fade for Saving Landmark Stand of Eucalyptus Trees 1,000 Historic Blue Gums by Ventura Freeway Pose Hazard Because of Falling Limbs, Trunks By JAMES QUINN, Times Staff Writer The towering eucalyptus trees lining the Ventura Freeway east of Camarillo have been a landmark almost since Don Adolfo Camarillo planted them in 1890. Since the turn of the century, the mile-long stand of more than 1,000 trees has been both a welcome oasis and a signal to southbound travelers of the approach of the mountains that border Los Angeles. But because the trees theEucalyptus globulus, or blue gum variety keep falling down, they seem to be falling out of favor. Prospects are increasing that they will be removed.

Those who want the trees cut down cite several seriousthough non-fatal traffic accidents that occurred recently when whole trees or limbs fell in front of fast-moving cars. Until recently, the trees were almost sacrosanct to residents and officials. Leaning Toward Removal Ventura County supervisors, after persistent lobbying by supporters, declared the trees a cultural landmark in 1968. Under similar pressure, the California Department of Transportation (Cal trans) two years ago designed a widening of the freeway to go around the trees, although the change added $1.5 million to the project. Camarillo Mayor Ron McConville, who is leading efforts to cut down the trees, said a majority of the City Council is now leaning toward removal because "the trees are so old they're just no longer safe." and founder of Camarillo Beautiful, an organization that promotes local beautification projects.

"They're not that dangerous," she said. "They've been there (nearly) 100 years and they've never killed anybody." John Kenan, Caltrans senior design engineer, said highway officials have heard "rumblings" about changing local sentiment regarding the trees and are "beginning to look at that possibility (of removing the trees)." $17-Million Project The trees are planted in two rows, one of which is on city-owned property immediately north of the freeway and the other on state property in the freeway median strip. Cutting down the trees would allow the widened freeway to keep its present alignment and would save almost all the added $1.5 million, most of which is earmarked for buying property south of the existing freeway, Kenan said. The start of work on the $17-million project is still at least 18 months away. The freeway is to be widened from its present two lanes each way to three lanes.

Removing the trees would require preparation of a supplement to the project's Environmental Impact Study and more engineering work, Kenan said. It also would require another public meeting in Camarillo similar to one conducted several years ago on the project's design. No date has been set for the council to take up the issue. Preservationists vow to fight any efforts to remove the trees. McConville's crusade has been endorsed by the two surviving children of Don Adolfo Camarillo, the community's founder, both of whom until recently fought to preserve the stand.

Carmen Camarillo Jones said, "After all these accidents, my sister (Rosa Camarillo Petit) and I feel the trees are just too dangerous to stay, although we still love to look at them. We think our father would have felt the same way." But the stately trees, some of which reach 80 feet high and four feet in diameter, will have passionate supporters. Pruning, Replacement Urged Councilwoman Mary Gayle says the trees are a "great asset" and should be preserved, possibly as a rest area alongside the realigned freeway. "I've been told by numerous people in Los Angeles, where I work, that they look forward to seeing those trees when driving, because they're a shady green spot, a restful oasis. I think we have to leave room in this concrete world for beauty and aesthetics." She contends that with constant pruning and the replacement of dying trees with a sturdier variety of eucalypti, the stand can be retained.

Also supporting preservation of the trees is Tweedy Rouce, a daughter-in-law of Don Adolpho Camarillo Bar Association Begins 'Public Good9 Legal Counseling Plan School Transformed for Environment Study By SANDY BANKS, Times Staff Writer Classes that meet on a grassy knoll surrounded by a forest and wildflower meadow Recesses spent watching baby chicks struggle to life or goldfish wriggle around in an outdoor pond Homework that includes tending a vegetable garden or weeding a flower bed Though it sounds like the routine of a school amidst pristine rural beauty, it could soon be the norm at Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary School, a block from bustling Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks. Students at the school, which draws half of its 640 students from Los Angeles' mid-Wilshire area, have begun to make their ambitious plan to convert their urban school into an environmental center. Please see DIXIE, Page 12 By LOUIS SAHAGUN, Times Staff Writer When Ron walked into his Sepulveda home two days before Christmas, he knew there was going to be troublehe could smell it on his 20-year-old foster son's breath. "When he takes a drink he just completely raises hell with everything," said Ron, who asked that his full name not be used. "That day he shoved me around and beat up on my fiancee and broke her finger.

She was out of work for a month." Barely getting by on Social Security benefits, Ron, 45, wondered where he could turn for help, since he could not afford legal assistance in dealing with the violent young man. Referred by a county court clerk Tuesday, Ron was one of the first to take advantage of a new San Fernando Valley Bar Assn. program designed for impoverished individuals who need emergency legal counsel partic Single individuals, for example, qualify with a maximum monthly income of $449. For a family of two, maximum monthly income is $595; for a family of three, $737; a family of four, $880; a family of five, $1,024, and a family of six, $1,168. Herbert F.

Blanck, president of the San Fernando Valley Bar said program applicants will be charged a discretionary fee of $5. "The occasional $5 fee we expect to get," Blanck said, "won't pay for much of anything. We're doing this because we have a moral obligation to the community. We make money on some things, but not this." Joseph DeGuiseppe, presiding judge of the Northwest District, Los Angeles Superior Court, said the new agency will help streamline court services and save time for those who "frequently do not know how to Please see LEGAL, Page 14 ularly in the area of family law and domestic violence. Soon after he discussed his problem with Meredith Taylor, a volunteer attorney with the program, Ron was told his request for a temporary restraining order against the foster son visiting the home would be heard by a judge today.

Ron sighed and replied, "You're a godsend. I could never have filled out those forms myself." Taylor said later Ron may have saved as much as $250 in attorney's fees and court costs by entering the program. The "pro bono" (for the public good) program was organized in part to pick up cases which no longer can be handled by the Neighborhood Legal Services center in Van Nuys, whose funds were cut 25 by the Reagan Administration, Taylor said. To qualify for services, potential clients must meet specified income guidelines. State Jobs Office Closure Hurts Employers and Unemployed TS.OOO,OCXX.OC -rv.

cut By LOUIS SAHAGUN, Times Staff Writer Soon after Northridge resident Lee Mushrush was laid off by Continental Airlines, he looked up the address of the state unemployment office closest to his home. The 48-year-old jet engine repairman got up early Monday and drove to the Canoga Park job office, expecting to beat a crush of unemployed workers waiting in line to pick up checks or to seek jobs. Instead, he found "the building was abandoned and a sign on the door said to go the Van Nuys office 10 miles out of my way." Doubts Any Reopening! The Canoga Park facility is one of 42 state job offices closed since last November in the wake of Reagan Administration budget cuts for federally funded state programs to find jobs for the unemployed. Nearly 160 remain open statewide. Although President Reagan asked Congress Monday for $2.3 billion to restore funds for services to the jobless, Fred D.

Brenner, administrator for the Employment Development Department's southern region, said, "I don't think that money will be used to reopen closed offices." Instead, "Assuming the cuts are restored," Brenner said, "the money would be spent primarily to get intermittent (part-time) workers back on the job." Said Henry Dotson, employee relations representative for the California State Employees Assn.i "It is ironic that Job placement services are being curtailed seriously by Reagan Administration budget cuts" at a time when unemployment in the state exceeds one million. While Mushrush waited to file for unemployment benefits, about 30 sign-carrying past and present employment services personnel used the lunch hour to demonstrate outside the Van Nuys job office against cutbacks that have resulted in the loss of 3,500 part time state jobs. Joanne Wilhelm, 52, supported herself for 10 years as a part-time employment and claims assistant at the Canoga Park office. "It was my security," she said. "I had no other income." She joined the ranks of the jobless last December when office operations were shut down.

"I'm looking for clerical work in private industry," Wilhelm said. "But my age is a bit of a handicap." Henry Miller, job placement representative at the Van Nuys center, said in 1981 the Canoga Park office placed 4.000 persons ranging from totally unskilled to highly trained professionals. Now, he said, many of the unemployed living in the West San Fernando Valley area what Miller called "one of the fastest growing industrial areas in the state" are forced to spend additional time getting to the Van Nuys office. Further Job Reductions Pointing out that the state placed 45,000 welfare recipients in jobs at an estimated saving? of $177 million in welfare payments, Miller added, "We want to inform the public through this demonstration why there is less service at the same time unemployment Is increasing." Less than two hours after employment personnel put away their placards and began returning to their desks Monday tcrnoon, Van Nuys job office manager Vivian Carter received word that further statewide reductions in employment personnel could be expected. Last Oct.

1, the start of fiscal year 1982, Carter said, the U.S. Department of Labor's budget required 570 of the state's 3,000 equivalent full-time employment services positions be eliminated. Please see JOBS, Page 1.1 Woman on picket line waves sign protesting the closing of state jobs office, a move criticized by both the out of work, their potential bosses. JOEL P. LUCAVERE Angela Timet.