The Department of Energy would be required to establish a resource center to support ill and injured Hanford Site workers in their efforts to obtain workers’ compensation, under language added to the U.S. Senate appropriations bill covering DOE for the next fiscal year.
The language, inserted by Washington state’s two Democratic senators, Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, also would require continued improvements to protect Hanford tank farm workers from chemical vapors. “While continued progress at Hanford is important, it should never come at the expense of workers’ health and safety,” Murray said.
The Department of Energy would be instructed to work with contractors, labor unions, and the state of Washington to set up the new center. It would provide education and advocacy to current and former Hanford employees on all available federal and state compensation programs to support workers who develop illnesses linked to chemical vapor exposure at the tank farms or who have other injuries.
Hanford workers complained to state legislators this year that it is nearly impossible to get a claim approved by the state Department of Labor and Industries for an illness caused by chemical vapors. DOE is self-insured for workers’ compensation claims, but the state makes the final decision.
Murray and Cantwell this spring asked the DOE’s Office of Inspector General to investigate allegations that workers’ state compensation claims at Hanford are being dismissed on arbitrary grounds. Hanford workers also may file claims with the federal Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program.
The Senate appropriations bill language would require DOE to continue implementing recommendations from the 2014 Hanford Tank Vapor Assessment Report, based on a review led by the Savannah River National Laboratory. DOE also would be required to move forward with recommendations from three subsequent reviews conducted by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the DOE Office of the Inspector General and Office of Enterprise Assessments.
“Workers at Hanford deserve the most stringent possible precautions in place as they make progress on the cleanup,” Cantwell said.
