After Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) this week mandated state employees get vaccinated for COVID-19 by Oct. 4, the Washington Department of Ecology, state regulator for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, delayed a planned “soft reopening” of its offices previously scheduled for August, an Ecology spokesman said Tuesday.
The reopening has been pushed back from mid-August to mid-September, Ecology spokesman Ryan Miller, wrote in an email response to Weapons Complex Morning Briefing.
“With that being said, we have had limited necessary staff back in the office for a while … [and] our inspectors have been back out in the field for several months,” Miller added.
Here is a brief rundown of the reopening status of various state regulators of big DOE nuclear facilities and their efforts to resume more normal operations months after coronavirus vaccines became publicly available.
- Mandatory telework related to COVID-19 ended this week at the New Mexico Environment Department, so those who wish to return to the office may do so. “The vast majority of staff have elected to work in a “hybrid” environment, meaning they come into the office on some days and telework on others,” said spokeswoman Maddy Hayden. The agency oversees state permits for both the Los Alamos National Laboratory and the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant.
- The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality returned to working in-office on June 1, said Brian English, the department’s hazardous waste permits supervisor. The decision was based on various factors including the COVID Testing Positivity Rate being below 5%, he said. The agency, which inspects hazardous waste operations at the Idaho National Laboratory, allows staff to telecommute a day or two per week depending on the nature of their work.
- The South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, a regulator of the DOE’s Savannah River Site, has largely been back in the office since late March, under an order from Gov. Henry McMaster (R) calling state employees back to their worksites. The policy does grant some leeway for medical conditions.
