The federal trial in the case over worker protection at the Hanford Site has been postponed again to allow more time for mediation. Following requests from both the plaintiffs and defendants, Judge Thomas Rice of the U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington pushed back the trial date from March 5, 2018, to April 9, 2018.
In September 2015, Washington state, the watchdog group Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 sued the Department of Energy and its Hanford tank farm contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions, demanding better protection of workers from chemical vapors associated with chemical and radioactive waste held in underground tanks.
The parties held an initial mediation session on April 20-21. “While the parties made progress towards settlement, the parties were unable to reach an agreement,” the sides said in a court document. An additional session has been scheduled for May 18-19.
The next deadline in the case, for submission of plaintiffs’ expert reports, is May 17. It and other interim deadlines in the case also have been extended about a month to allow time for continued mediation. The parties told the court they might request further deadline extensions or a stay of litigation if they agree continued efforts at mediation or other settlement negotiations would be productive.
The trial was scheduled for October 2017 at the start of this year. However, the parties to the case began preliminary settlement talks in December after Rice ruled against the plaintiffs’ request for a preliminary injunction requiring increased protections for workers while the case proceeds. In January, the plaintiffs and defendants asked that the trial be delayed until March 2018 to allow time for mediation.
