Plaintiffs and defendants in the lawsuit over chemical vapors protection for workers at the Hanford Site in Washington state have asked for another delay in the trial as they try to reach a settlement agreement.
The trial already has been postponed twice to allow the parties to pursue mediation. Now, the sides have asked U.S. Judge Thomas Rice of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington to postpone the start of the bench trial from April 9, 2018, to June 11, 2018. Interim deadlines also would be delayed for at least two months, including the current June 19, 2017, deadline for plaintiffs to submit expert reports.
The state of Washington, watchdog group Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 filed lawsuits in September 2015 seeking better protection of Hanford workers from chemical vapors associated with millions of gallons of radioactive and chemical waste held in tanks. Their claims would be heard in a single trial. The defendants are the Department of Energy and Washington River Protection Solutions, the Hanford tank farm contractor.
The parties said they made progress toward a settlement in a second round of mediation talks, held May 18-19. But, in the absence of an agreement, additional mediation sessions have been scheduled for July 13-14 and Aug. 1-3.
Eight workers reported smelling suspicious odors outside the A Tank Farm in the center of the Hanford Site in Washington state on Tuesday morning, a possible indication of chemical vapors associated with radioactive waste stored in underground tanks.
One of the workers was an industrial hygienist who took immediate air samples. Evaluation of the samples completed later in the day showed contaminants at or below background levels, according to tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions. Often when odors are reported, a crew has to be sent in to take samples, allowing time for any chemical vapors to disperse.
Three of the workers in the Tuesday incident reported symptoms. While details were not released, symptoms typically include feeling light-headed, coughing, headache, and a metallic taste in the mouth. Workers are concerned that breathing in chemical vapors could cause serious health issues. The three workers were sent for medical evaluations in the morning, and later in the day two more employees who had not reported symptoms also underwent precautionary medical evaluations. The remaining three workers declined evaluations. All workers were medically cleared to return to work.
The workers had not been required to wear supplied air respirators because they were outside the tank farm fence line working both inside and outside a new water and air service building. Hanford contractors have reported about seven workers receiving medical evaluations for potential vapor exposure this year, down from more than 50 in 2016. The number of potential exposures has dropped since the Hanford tank farm contractor began requiring supplied air respirators for most work inside tank farms after a stop work order by the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council, an umbrella group for 15 Hanford unions.
Workers who were ordered to take cover June 8 at the Hanford Site’s Plutonium Finishing Plant are being offered bioassay testing for radioactive contamination.
“We have seen no preliminary data to suggest potential exposures exceed levels requiring a bioassay,” according to a memo distributed Friday to employees working on the plant cleanup. But rather than relying solely on air and other sample results, “we believe each employee should have their potential exposure evaluated so they have that peace of mind,” the CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. memo said.
Some workers received kits for the bioassays Friday and others were told the kits would be delivered to their homes in the next several days. Results will take up to eight weeks.
On Thursday morning, an air monitor detected low levels of airborne radioactive contamination as open-air demolition continued on the plant’s Plutonium Reclamation Facility. Workers took cover indoors for more than three hours. Some spots of radioactive contamination were found outside the demolition zone, including on sidewalks, on a respirator station, and near a vehicle access gate.
“The airborne excursion was short in duration, and the take cover that we were put under minimized the potential exposure,” the memo said. Collection and analysis of air sample data continued at the end of last week, along with additional surveys at the Plutonium Finishing Plant complex.
Albuquerque, N.M.-based STC Environmental Services this week secured two deals with a maximum total value of about $5 million for services for the Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management (EM).
On Tuesday, the DOE office announced that STC had received a five-year contract worth up to $4 million to provide support services for EM headquarters.
The indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract covers technical, regulatory, environmental, and planning support services, according to an EM press release. It will encompass firm-fixed-price and time and materials task orders.
On Wednesday, DOE said STC had secured a time and materials task order for an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract, with a top value of $1.2 million over two years. STC will conduct the same support services for EM’s Office of Waste and Materials Management.
STC Environmental Services is a joint venture of Sigma Science, an Albuquerque-based provider of environmental management and other services that is a subcontractor for the Sandia National Laboratories; and TerranearPMC, a radiological and nuclear cleanup specialist headquartered in Exton, Pa.
TerranearPMC was most recently one of the remaining bidders for the DOE contract to dig a deep borehole to test whether they might be used for nuclear waste storage. The Trump administration formally canceled the project last month.
