A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Department of Energy and contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS) to take interim steps already proposed by DOE to protect Hanford Site workers from chemical vapors at the waste storage tank farms. Washington state, the nongovernmental Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 last month filed for a preliminary injunction to immediately obtain augmented safety and vapor monitoring measures for Hanford workers. The injunction would come ahead of a May 2017 trial in the AG’s lawsuit against the federal government over worker safety.
On Tuesday, U.S. Judge Thomas Rice set the hearing on the preliminary injunction for Oct. 12 in the Spokane Courthouse of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington
DOE, concerned that it needed time to prepare its case for the preliminary injunction hearing, had proposed that it take certain steps until the judge ruled. Rice appeared to come down somewhere in the middle of the state’s request for a quick ruling and DOE’s request for time to develop its case, including finding expert witnesses. The judge is allowing both sides additional time to file briefs but shortening the time between the briefings and the hearing.
The steps DOE offered to take — and now is ordered to take — include using supplied air respirators on any work within the tank farms. WRPS had already made that mandatory in response to union demands in June. It also will have new monitoring and detection equipment for chemical vapors deployed in a Hanford tank farm by Aug. 15.
The department will not conduct operations that disturbs tank waste, which can increase the likelihood that vapors will be released, unless the work is needed for safety reasons. DOE would notify the plaintiffs 24 hours before waste-disturbing activities, if possible. The federal agency said in court documents that the ban on waste-disturbing activities would not include testing of extended-reach sluicers being installed in Tank AY-102, the double-shell tank being emptied because it is leaking waste between its shells. However, testing would only involve water, and only essential employees would be allowed in the area, DOE said.
