March 17, 2014

DOE SAFETY OFFICE: URS MGMT. ACTED IMPROPERLY IN WTP SAFETY PROBE

By ExchangeMonitor

The Department of Energy’s Office of Health, Safety and Security believes URS management acted improperly in recently seeking to prevent a company employee from participating without supervision in an ongoing investigation into safety concerns at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant. At issue is an allegation made by Donna Busche, who serves as WTP Environmental and Nuclear Safety Manager, that URS Senior Vice President for Business Assurance Ellen Livingston-Behan sought to interfere with her participation in the HSS investigation by contacting a senior official in the DOE-HSS office to ask that Busche not be interviewed as part of the investigation without her supervisor present. Earlier this week, the Department’s Office of Enforcement sent a memorandum to DOE cleanup chief David Huizenga that supports Busche’s allegation. “I can confirm that just prior to the initial onsite investigation visit, URS contacted HSS and requested that Ms. Busche be withdrawn from the interview schedule until such time that her supervisor could be present to observe the interview,” wrote Office of Enforcement Director John Boulden in the March 20 memo, which DOE released yesterday in response to a request by WC Monitor.

HSS informed URS that it could not remove Busche from any scheduled interviews, and that it did not view as “appropriate” the “last minute addition” of her supervisor to any interviews, in part, because of “the potential chilling effect that the uninvited presence of a supervisor can have on the conduct of an enforcement interview,” Boulden wrote. However, Busche’s supervisor did attend what Boulden described as “initial large-group design process discussions” that occurred on March 6—a move Boulden said appears to have had a negative impact on HSS’ efforts. “At the time, the investigation team leader decided to not make an issue of the supervisor’s participation due to the general nature and content of the discussion. However, we now believe that the tension we observed during those discussions may have degraded the exchange of information with the team,” Boulden wrote.

Busche’s allegation came up during a hearing held yesterday by the House Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee on the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s FY 2013 budget request. On the sidelines of the hearing, DOE Chief Health, Safety and Security Officer Glenn Podonsky told WC Monitor that he was “more than upset” about URS’ actions. “Whether it was intended or not, the appearance of interference was there,” Podonsky said. He also said that URS’ actions “adversely impacts our ability to do our enforcement investigation.” During yesterday’s hearing, Huizenga said his office has made it “very clear” that there will be no interference with the HSS investigation. “We’re proving guidance to the [DOE] Office of River Protection out at Hanford and the contractor that no one will interfere with the HSS reviews. They’ll have unfettered access to the documents and to the people that they need to conduct their investigation,” Huizenga said. When asked on the sidelines of yesterday’s hearing if he felt URS management had acted inappropriately, Huizenga replied, “I talked to URS management and clarified the fact that we need to foster an open, transparent environment for the HSS investigation. They clearly understand my position and I think they respect it.”

Comments are closed.