Staff Reports
WC Monitor
9/4/2015
Two lawsuits were filed this week against the Department of Energy and Hanford tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions seeking better protection for workers from chemical vapors. The state of Washington sued in its role as regulator, and the second lawsuit was filed on behalf of workers by advocacy group Hanford Challenge and the United Association of Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598, which represents Hanford pipe fitters and welders. The lawsuits were filed in Eastern Washington District federal court. Hanford workers have been exposed to chemical vapors from the waste stored in Hanford tanks for decades, said Bob Ferguson, the Washington state attorney general, at a press conference in Seattle. “I stand here today, 23 years, 19 reports, and at least 120 exposed workers later to say we are right back where we started in the 1980s,” he said. “It is time for a new and more aggressive approach.”
The state’s goal is to obtain a court order to require DOE to establish a program to protect workers now and in the future, Ferguson said. The department should stop emissions of vapors, improve monitoring and corresponding warning systems, require the use of personal protective equipment, require independent oversight, and be held accountable, he said. “I hope we can avoid a lengthy court battle,” but the current conversations with DOE and continued reports on tank vapors have not solved the problem, he said. Hanford Challenge and Local 598 also are seeking ongoing comprehensive medical monitoring for past and present Hanford workers and communication of complete information and exposure incidents to workers and the public. Neither lawsuit seeks financial penalties against the defendants, but both request payment of their legal costs and fees.
Every few years at Hanford a cycle repeats of increasing reports of vapor exposures, the issue catches news media attention, Congress launches inquiries, and expert reports are ordered and completed, said Tom Carpenter, executive director of Hanford Challenge. But workers continue to be exposed and fall ill, he said. More than 1,500 chemicals have been detected in the vapors that collect in the headspace of underground tanks, including ammonia, nitrous oxide, mercury, ketones, phthalates, nitriles, and nitrosamines. Hanford’s tanks do not have effective filters or systems to capture or remove toxic vapors and they are emitted or leaked to the atmosphere, said the lawsuit filed by Hanford Challenge and Local 598. Workers have reported symptoms such as headaches, bloody noses, coughing, sore throats, and dizziness. Some have developed serious long-term illnesses, the lawsuit said. They include brain damage, lung disease, nerve conditions and cancer, Carpenter said.
The most recent tank vapor report, completed in October 2014, was commissioned by WRPS and led by the Savannah River National Laboratory. It hypothesized that reported worker health effects could be caused by exposure to short, intermittent, relatively high concentrations of chemical vapors. Verifying the existence and quantifying the amount of such potential exposures would require a first-of-a-kind program for vapors management built around expanded data collection, new research studies, and new technologies, the report said. WRPS launched a multiyear plan to implement recommendations in the report, starting with increased data collection and technology testing to determine actions to be taken. In the meantime, it began requiring supplied-air respirators for most work in the Hanford tank farms. “WRPS is committed to providing working conditions that do not pose a risk of serious harm from industrial, radiological or chemical hazards to its employees while they are working in Hanford’s tank farms,” WRPS said in a statement after the lawsuits were filed. DOE said in a statement that it is working closely with WRPS as it implements the first phase of its plan to carry out the report’s recommendations.
The state wants a more comprehensive plan developed to identify vapor controls, said Andrew Fitz of the Attorney General’s Office. The Hanford plan now lacks specifics, including a set schedule, he said. “Hanford officials told us they have taken protective measures, but they have not gone far enough,” Carpenter said. No workers wearing required supplied-air respirators have reported possible vapor exposures. But there continue to be potential exposure incidents in cases in which workers are not wearing supplied-air respirators. They may be working just outside the tank farms or doing work not expected to pose a risk for vapor exposure. The most recent vapor incident occurred on Aug. 14, with one worker experiencing a nose bleed and then spending the night in the hospital because of dizziness and difficulty breathing, according to the lawsuit filed by Hanford Challenge and Local 598. Local 598 is recommending that its workers wear supplied-air respirators at all times in the tank farms. But union officials allege that assignments have been given to other workers when its members insist on wearing the respirators. DOE has supported the supplied-air respirator requirements, but said the increased respirator protection has reduced worker efficiency in the tank farms by 30 to 70 percent, delaying progress in emptying single-shell tanks by a year.