The state of Washington accused the Department of Energy of “backward thinking and outright denial” in the final court filings before a judge hears the state’s request for a preliminary injunction on Hanford Site worker safety Wednesday morning at the federal courthouse in Spokane. The state, the watchdog organization Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 have asked the court to require interim protective measures until their lawsuit on worker protection from Hanford chemical vapors is decided. The judge also will hear arguments on the DOE’s request that the state, but not the two citizen plaintiffs, be dismissed from the case for lack of standing.
DOE has argued that the state has not shown that common symptoms such as headaches and coughing are caused by exposure to chemical vapors associated with tank waste at Hanford or that worker health has been harmed. The state fired back in preliminary injunction filings on Oct. 5, saying DOE has summarily dismissed its “own tally of worker exposures by concluding that the headaches, dizziness, bloody noses, shortness of breath and gagging – simultaneously experienced by scores of Hanford workers exposed to chemical vapors earlier this year – are mere happenstance.”
The federal agency has failed to overcome the substantial case built by the state that Hanford workers breathe in toxic chemicals at dangerous levels, the state said. The two other plaintiffs joined the state’s arguments. “Although the defendants claim that their current measures will sufficiently protect workers until trial, history demonstrates otherwise,” the state said. More than 50 workers were exposed to chemical vapors between April and June of this year, it added.
The plaintiffs are asking that supplied air respirators be mandatory inside tank farm fence lines, which is the current policy at the tank farms to meet the requirements of a union stop work order.
The plaintiffs also are asking that the vapor control zone where supplied air respirators are now required be extended 200 feet outside the fence line of specific tank farms when work is done that disturbs waste and increases the likelihood that vapors could be released. The state accused DOE of “sky-is-falling predictions of large-scale disruptions, enormous expenditures and massive delays caused by the 10 to 12 months of preliminary protective measures sought by the state.” Tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions estimated the cost of supplied air respirators pursuant to an injunction at $290 million, according to the state.
The full trial in the lawsuit is scheduled for September 2017.
