The bench trial in a lawsuit demanding better protection for Hanford Site workers has been delayed by about six weeks to allow the parties more time to pursue a settlement agreement. The trial now is set for July 25, 2018, in the Richland courthouse of U.S. District Court for Eastern Washington.
This is the fourth postponement plaintiffs and defendants have requested and received since the parties announced at the first of the year they planned to pursue mediation in the case. Interim deadlines for filing reports in the case, including identifying experts, also have been moved out four to six weeks by U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice.
The state of Washington, watchdog group Hanford Challenge, and the pipefitters union Local 598 filed suit in September 2015 against the Department of Energy and its Hanford waste storage tank farm contractor, Washington River Protection Solutions (WRPS). Plaintiffs are asking the court to require increased protection for Hanford workers from chemical vapors associated with waste in underground tanks.
Hanford’s tank farm holds about 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste, the byproduct of decades of plutonium production at the site for U.S. nuclear weapons.