Staff Reports
WC Monitor
11/13/2015
The Hanford Advisory Board has asked the Department of Energy to release more information on protecting workers from chemical vapors and other issues at the Hanford Site tank farms. The board included the vapor issue on its proposed 2016 work plan, but DOE objected, and it is not included as a regular agenda item on the final plan. As a result, the board does not expect to receive any formal briefings on the issue and will not prepare advice for DOE and its regulators on vapors from the waste storage tanks. The board said in a letter to DOE that it recognizes that two lawsuits filed in September against DOE on the vapor danger pose some restrictions on what the department says on the matter and that some board members who might have a conflict of interest related to the lawsuits should recuse themselves from discussions. “However, the scope of the restrictions now imposed on board public discussions seems unnecessarily broad,” it said in the letter made public on Monday.
The department said in an earlier memo that members of organizations involved in the lawsuits should not participate in discussions “related to the past and present handling, storage, treatment, transportation, and/or disposal of solid or hazardous waste in the Hanford tank farms, as well as issues related to the potential impacts on health and the environment due to vapors.” DOE also will be limited in its discussion of such topics, the memo said.
The board is not expected to be given full briefings on tank vapor issues, but it can request progress updates. Some information was shared at the September board meeting when DOE reported on all work being done under the Office of River Protection. The board has heard about protective measures and implementation of the first phase of recommended improvements identified in a report prepared by a team led by the Savannah River National Laboratory. “Worker safety has been and will always be a priority for the Department of Energy,” DOE said in a statement responding to the letter, which the HAB distributed this week after discussions at its November meeting. “The department will continue to communicate as appropriate and in consideration of the ongoing litigation,” according to the DOE statement.
While the board said it appreciates the information that has been released, it wants DOE to reconsider its policy. “The board encourages DOE to revisit the communication restrictions in hopes of minimizing tank farm information restricted areas to only those which directly bear on the on-going litigation,” the board letter said. It added that “openness will only improve board and public trust in the DOE safety culture.” Part of the board’s goal in sending the letter was to assure Hanford workers that even though it would not issue advice on tank vapors, that should not be interpreted as a lack of concern over the matter. “The board reaffirms that the health and safety of the Hanford Site work force will remain one of our primary concerns and that the board will continue to actively monitor this and other important worker safety issues,” the letter said.
DOE has said that advisory board members should recuse themselves from issues that directly affect them. One of the federal lawsuits was filed by Washington state and the other by Hanford Challenge and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598. Hanford Challenge has a seat on the advisory board and recused itself from discussing the issue at the November board meeting. Local 598 is one of the 14 unions that make up the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council (HAMTC), which also has a seat on the board, as DOE pointed out in its memo. However, HAMTC chose not to join the lawsuit and no announcement was made at the board meeting that the organization planned to recuse itself from discussing the issue.
