DOE Completes Waste Retrieval From 13 of 16 Tanks by Deadline
WC Monitor
10/3/2014
Washington state agreed this week that the Department of Energy had met the 2010 consent decree requirements for emptying another waste tank at Hanford. That brought DOE closer to meeting the consent decree deadline to have the 16 C Farm Tanks emptied to regulatory requirements by the end of fiscal year 2014, but it still had three single-shell tanks out of compliance as the deadline passed. DOE had warned the state that it was at serious risk of not having those three tanks emptied by the deadline.
The 13th and latest tank to meet requirements of the consent decree is Tank C-112, which has about 13,000 gallons of waste remaining after workers removed about 91,000 gallons. The goal is to have no more than 2,700 gallons of waste remaining, which is about 1 inch of waste if it were spread across the bottom of the 530,000-gallon tank. But the consent decree allows the state Department of Ecology to waive that requirement if three technologies have been used to their limit to remove waste in a single tank. Washington state said in a letter sent early this week to DOE that it agreed that two waste retrieval technologies had removed as much waste as they could in Tank C-112 and that a third technology would have limited effectiveness and would not substantially reduce the risk of the waste. The first technology used was a telescoping sluicing system that sprayed liquid on waste to break it up and move it toward a central pump in the tank. Next Washington River Protection Solutions tried soaking the waste with water and a caustic solution to remove the hard layer of waste at its bottom.
The third proposed technology would have been another soak but with a different chemical. The state agreed that DOE could forgo that, but DOE still must analyze samples of the remaining waste and assess the risk posed by the remaining waste. Further retrieval may yet be required based on those results, and retrieval equipment cannot be removed from Tank C-112 without state approval, the state said. The state also wants DOE and WRPS to continue to improve technology for emptying the enclosed, underground tank. Waste had been broken into sand-like particles in Tank C-112, but they could not be moved to the pump inlet and pumped out of the tank. That process will need to be improved for other tanks, the state said.
DOE Needs to Replace Foldtrack Capability, State Says
Last year DOE used a remote-controlled device, the Foldtrack, to finish emptying one of the C Farm tanks. That also was an option favored for Tank C-112, but the company that makes it has gone out of business, according to the state. DOE needs to replace that capability, the state said. The 800-pound machine could extend to 12 feet long to fit through the narrow risers that provide the only access to the underground tanks. But once it was lowered onto the floor of the tank it folded up to form a remote-control bulldozer with water jets.
With Tank C-112 waste retrieval complete for the purposes of the consent decree, DOE now has 14 of 149 single shell tanks retrieved, all but one of those in the C Tank Farm. Hanford workers have removed nearly 1.5 million gallons of waste from the tanks in the C Tank Farm and nearly 1 million gallons from tanks in the S Tank Farm.
URS Creates New Exec. Position to Aid WTP-Tank Farms Integration
WC Monitor
10/3/2014
URS has created a new position intended to aid in the development of a plan to integrate the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant with the site’s tank farms. Terri Marts has been named to fill the new position of Vice President of High Level Waste Mission Integration within URS’ Global Management and Operations Services group, according to an internal announcement issued this week, a copy of which was obtained by WC Monitor. Marts last served as Director of Corporate Research Alliances for the University of Pittsburgh, and her most recent URS assignment was Vice President and Program Manager for Research and Engineering Services at the Department of Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory. “Dr. Marts is a proven leader in our industry with 35 years in the federal, power, and industrial markets, including 15 years with URS. She also has experience in systems integration, federal acquisition and construction in support of complex technical projects, and project management under DOE orders,” URS GMOS General Manager James Taylor said in the internal announcement.
Time Card Fraud Trial Gets Underway
WC Monitor
10/3/2014
Much of the prosecution’s case in the first of three planned trials for timecard fraud at the Hanford tank farms will rely on testimony from former workers who have accepted plea deals that require them to cooperate, defense attorneys said this week. The trial in Eastern Washington District U.S. Court for four Hanford workers started this week with jury selection and then opening arguments Oct. 2. Kenneth Baird, James Michael Hay, Perry Howard and Mark Norris Johnson are each facing charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, major fraud against the United States and two counts of submission of false claims related to their supervision of Hanford workers. The prosecution said they were “persons in charge,” or PICs, responsible for getting specific pieces of work done at the Hanford tank farms under former contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group. “These employees had sole authority over workers in the field,” said Sean McLaughlin, an assistant U.S. attorney. That included where employees went, what work was done and when the work was completed, he said. When overtime work was required, eight hour shifts would be offered to get workers whom the defendants would supervise to volunteer. Workers would often finish work and leave early, but claim the full eight hours of overtime, according to the prosecution. It was widely known, but never written down, that if employees would volunteer, they would be allowed to claim a full shift, often at premium overtime rates of $70 or $80 an hour, McLaughlin said.
But the four defendants were not managers for former contractor CH2M Hill Hanford Group, said defense attorney John Gary Metro. They could not hire anyone and they could not fire anyone. They did not sign any timecards except their own. They might say in work planning meetings that overtime would be needed, but they did not make the decision to offer overtime and they got whatever workers the union sent to do the job, defense attorney Peter Schweda said.
CH2M Hill was reimbursed by the federal government for expenses, including overtime and other labor costs, and then earned incentive pay for getting certain work done on time. But the four defendants had nothing to do with attaining those goals or with the company’s profits, Schweda said. “There is no motive for these gentlemen to cheat,” he said. They were accused of giving secret signals to workers and speaking in code to let workers know that when overtime jobs were finished early they could go home. The prosecution said supervisors might say “Hey, go do the thing you do” as a signal workers were free to leave Hanford. But if the timecard fraud were as widespread as the prosecution claimed, no signal would have been needed, Schweda said.
Government Witnesses Are ‘Cheaters,’ Defense Attorney Charges
There will be no video, no audio and no wiretap evidence presented to show cooperation in timecard fraud and not one piece of paper evidence with his client’s name on it, said attorney John Crowley, defending Baird. “[Most of the] government witnesses are cheaters,” Schweda said. “They are trying to avoid jail time and not have to pay a lot of money back.”
McLaughlin said the jury is entitled to be skeptical of former workers who pleaded guilty and now are testifying for the prosecution, but he urged the jury to keep an open mind. The four defendants essentially served as foremen for CH2M Hill, when it held the tank farm contract from fall 1999 to fall 2008, and they continue to be employed at Hanford, said their attorneys. That would not be the case if the current contractor believed them to be cheaters and deceivers, Schweda said. The defendants “are not good workers, they are great workers,” Metro said.
$20-30 Million Paid in Overtime
The words “lie, cheat and steal” were used repeatedly during opening arguments, after the prosecution started proceedings by saying it would show that was what the four defendants had done over and over again and helped others do. Hourly workers and supervisors at Hanford made “loads of overtime pay,” and the company made its deadlines and collected bonuses, but at the expense of taxpayers, McLaughlin said. While CH2M Hill was contractor, $20 million to $30 million was paid in overtime, with a substantial portion of that fraudulent, according to the prosecution.
Hay was singled out for collecting $64,000 in overtime pay in addition to his base pay in one year. But Hay’s attorney said that was because Hay, the only union worker among those on trial, was willing to perform overtime work when others with similar job responsibilities would not. And when he had maxed out allowable hours for pay, he would work for free, troubleshooting the aging equipment in the tank farms, Schweda said. The prosecution has previously laid out much of its case in court documents. But the opening arguments were the first time that attorneys for the workers on trial have given an in-depth look at their planned defense.
Tank Farm Workers Now Required To Wear Respirators
WC Monitor
10/3/2014
Hanford workers now are required to wear respirators to enter single-shell tank farms, an early result of an independent study of ways to better protect workers from chemical vapors. An interim report on the study, being led by Savannah River National Laboratory, has not been made public. However, Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions has been reviewing a draft of it for accuracy, according to a memo to tank farm workers from Dave Olson, the WRPS president. Based on what Olson called a “near-term recommendation” from the study team, WRPS is requiring workers to wear either half-face or full-face respirators equipped with cartridges to filter the air they breathe when they enter single-shell tank farms. The type of respirator will be based on the potential risk of vapors.
Information on the basis for the recommendation has not been released by the team, including to workers required to wear the respirators. However, the single-shell tank farms have passive ventilation systems that release chemical vapors into the air. Hanford’s newer double-shell tanks have active ventilation systems with fans that better dilute vapors released into the air. Workers will continue also to be required to use respirators in the double-shell tank farms if officials determine during work planning that there is a possible risk of chemical vapors. The risk increases if waste is being disturbed, including to move it among tanks, and during certain weather conditions. Respirators had been required for a time this spring in some of the A-complex tank farms after possible vapors were smelled there, but that requirement was lifted after WRPS went to a case-by-case evaluation system.
Since early spring, 49 Hanford workers have received medical evaluations after being exposed to odors consistent with chemical vapors in or near Hanford’s tank farms. The headspaces of different tanks contain more than 1,000 chemicals, including mercury and benzene. Some of the workers who received medical evaluations had symptoms consistent with chemical vapor exposure. Those include headaches, dizziness, coughing and shortness of breath. Some former workers have developed serious long-term medical conditions attributed to vapor exposure. Now workers are required to evacuate tank farms and move upwind if vapors are smelled or workers develop symptoms.
