With settlement talks continuing, parties in the chemical vapors lawsuit at the Hanford Site in Washington state have asked a federal judge to delay the trial date for another three months.
Parties are requesting that the trial date be extended until Nov. 27, 2018. If a trial occurs then, it would be three years after the suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington.
The proposed Nov. 27, 2018, trial date which would be after the current tank farm contract expires. Washington River Protection Solutions holds a 10-year contract that expires in September 2018, barring an extension.
In November 2015 the state of Washington, watchdog group Hanford Challenge and the pipefitters union Local 598 filed a lawsuit against the Department of Energy and Washington River Protection Solutions, demanding better worker protection against chemical vapors associated with waste held in underground tanks.
The parties began talks toward a settlement around the first of 2017 after U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice ruled against the plaintiffs, who wanted mandated worker protections from chemical vapors until the trial.
The judge said while he was taking potential worker health concerns seriously, workers are already being protected by Hanford requirements for supplied air respirators for most work within Hanford tank farms. At the first of the year the trial was set for March 2017, but the judge has granted numerous extensions throughout the year, most recently a one-month extension in October.
