After two and a half hours of arguments Wednesday in a hearing over a preliminary injunction request for Hanford Site worker safety, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice said he would issue a detailed written order as promptly as he can.
Plaintiffs Washington state, Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 have asked for a preliminary injunction requiring increased protection of workers who could be exposed to vapors associated with tank waste left by decades of plutonium production at Hanford. The preliminary injunction would stand until a lawsuit on the plaintiffs’ safety demands is resolved; trial is scheduled for September 2017. In turn, DOE and the case’s second defendant, tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS), have asked the judge to dismiss the state as a plaintiff, saying it does not meet the requirements for legal standing in the case.
Most of Wednesday’s hearing focused on the preliminary injunction motion, with plaintiffs saying DOE’s history shows it cannot be trusted to protect workers. Hanford is in a continual cycle of worker exposures, followed by increased protection requirements, after which safety measures lapse, and additional worker exposures result, said plaintiff attorneys.
DOE attorneys said the plaintiffs had not shown in initial court filings that any workers had been harmed by tank vapors in recent months, the time frame that was the focus of the preliminary injunction motion. The only case plaintiffs had initially briefed for that time period was for a worker whose medical records showed that lung problems were caused by an infection rather than chemical exposure, according to DOE.
However, the state added documentation to the case on Oct. 5 regarding a May 2 incident; DOE said the filing came so late it did not have time to thoroughly review the worker’s claims. An instrument specialist said he was overcome by a strong odor just as an industrial hygiene technician’s monitor sounded. He experienced symptoms that included dizziness, coughing, a nose bleed, and a headache and then began to vomit, according to the plaintiffs. The technician’s monitor detected a sufficient amount of ammonia to cause immediate harm to respiratory tissues, plaintiff attorneys said.
DOE and WRPS said it was an unusual incident, unrelated to vapors venting from the headspace of underground tanks when waste was disturbed. Maintenance was being done May 2 on a contaminated piece of equipment. Some rinse water trapped inside the equipment’s protective plastic wrapping vaporized and escaped over one to two seconds, said defense attorneys. WRPS has halted similar maintenance work until it has corrective actions in place to better protect workers, they said.
