The Department of Energy says contractor North Wind Portage should be assessed more than a quarter-million-dollars’ worth of violations due to a December 2021 accident that crushed the left hand of a worker at the Moab Uranium Mill Tailings cleanup in Utah.
In a press release and preliminary notice of violation last week, DOE’s Office of Enterprise Assessments said a total of $265,000 violations should be assessed against North Wind for putting too much onus on workers to stay safe rather than providing adequate planning, training and engineering controls.
The agency plans to reduce the penalties to a total of about $223,000 thanks to various corrective actions taken by North Wind since the worker was injured.
When a 142-pound track roller on a Caterpillar model D6 bulldozer rolled over the worker’s left hand, “the injury was severe” and resulted in surgical amputation of parts of the individual’s left middle and ring fingers, according to the document.
Afterward, North Wind “did not follow the emergency response protocol of calling 911 to request EMS [emergency management services] to provide medical care, stabilize, and transport the injured worker,” the DOE said.
Under a preliminary notice, the contractor would be assessed severity level 1 and 2 violations for shortcomings on identifying hazards, preventing and abating risks as well as emergency response training, according to the Feb. 9 press release. Level 1 is an accident that could potentially result in serious physical harm or death, according to the DOE document.
During maintenance, North Wind Portage “did not require compliance with the manufacturers’ service manuals or the manufacturers’ recommendations and specifications,” which amounts to a level 1 violation where DOE seeks a financial penalty of $106,000— although that penalty like others detailed in the report, would be reduced anywhere from 10% to 20% because of the company’s corrective actions.
DOE said North Wind deviated from its own approved worker safety program on limiting worker exposure on hoisting or rigging large loads. For example, the contractor failed to properly attach a safe “sling,” a structure often made of wire rope, to attach a load to the lifting equipment.
“Specifically, the investigation revealed that [North Wind Portage] allowed the work practice of placing the track roller into the sling, perpendicular to the circumference of the roller, without securely attaching the sling to the roller,” DOE said. “Consequently, the worker was injured when the track roller slipped out of the sling.”
North Wind declined comment on the fine itself but “ agrees that event was considered of ‘high safety significance,’” a company spokesperson said in an email to Exchange Monitor. “The team has implemented corrective actions to prevent recurrence and has used the event to further strengthen and improve our programs.”
Additionally, the contractor “was aware of previous incidents” where the track roller slipped from the sling, DOE said. Rather than enacting an engineering control, North Wind relied too much on merely training workers to keep their hands clear of danger, the agency said.
North Wind was also relying on a single employee to do a lot.
The contractor “used a one-person process to position and place the track roller, which required the mechanic to lay on the ground near the undercarriage while guiding the suspended load with one hand and operating the crane with a remote controller in the other hand.” Collectively, these problems constituted a level 1 violation and a $106,000 penalty before the 20% reduction.
Finally, there are Level 2 violations led by North Wind’s failure to promptly call 911. The total for the level 2 violations is $53,000 before being reduced 10%.
The Atomic Energy Act of 1954 gives DOE authority to assess health and safety violations against contractors. The proposed fine was outlined in a Feb. 8 letter to North Wind Portage President Jeff Scott, which is included in the notice of violation package from DOE’s enforcement office.
If North Wind Portage fails to contest the civil penalties, it should pay the total of $222,600 within 30 days, according to DOE.
Last February, North Wind Portage started a new 10-year contract, potentially worth more than $20 million, to finish removing a 16-million-ton pile of tailings from near the Colorado River to an engineered landfill about 30 miles away in Cross Junction, Utah. More than 13 million tons have been moved as of November 2022.
