Plaintiffs and defendants met with a mediator for a first session Thursday to attempt to resolve a lawsuit demanding better protection for Hanford Site workers exposed to chemical vapors from waste tanks, according to Hanford tank farm contractor Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS). The session, held in Seattle, was expected to continue today.
Washington state, watchdog group Hanford Challenge, and Plumbers and Steamfitters Local Union 598 filed suit in September 2015 against the Department of Energy and WRPS. In December 2016, the parties started preliminary settlement talks and then asked U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice to postpone the nonjury trial date while they pursued mediation. Rice, ruling in U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington, pushed back the trial date from October 2017 to March 5, 2018, if mediation is not successful.
Washington state has argued that workers have been sickened for decades from inhaling chemical vapors from tanks filled with millions of gallons of chemical and radioactive waste produced during Hanford’s plutonium production days. Hanford Challenge said some workers have developed serious respiratory and neurological illnesses from chemical exposures. However, the defendants convinced the judge that mandatory supplied air respirators are adequately protecting workers until the case is either settled or goes to trial. Rice ruled in November against requiring additional immediate worker protections requested by the plaintiffs, but said his ruling did not mean the court was denying that chemical vapors have caused serious illnesses.
