PRESS RELEASE ISSUED 7. 24. 17
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), the ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee and a senior member of the Senate Committee on Appropriations, and Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, announced they secured new provisions in the Fiscal Year 2018 Senate Energy and Water Development Appropriations Bill to address ongoing concerns about workers in or near the tank farms at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state being exposed to chemical vapors. One provision urges the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to continue implementing recommendations from the 2014 Hanford Tank Vapor Assessment Report, and to move forward with recommendations from three subsequent reviews conducted by DOE’s Office of the Inspector General and Office of Enterprise Assessments, and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. A second provision would direct DOE to work with contractors, labor unions, and the State of Washington to establish a resource center to provide education and advocacy to current and former Hanford employees on all available Federal and State compensation programs to support workers who are injured on the job. The bill containing the two provisions passed the Senate Committee on Appropriations and now moves to the full Senate.
“While continued progress at Hanford is important, it should never come at the expense of workers’ health and safety,” Senator Murray said. “I’m encouraged to see these important provisions pass this hurdle, and I will fight to make sure the Trump Administration does everything in its power to put safety first and provide Hanford workers the health care and benefits they deserve.”
“Workers at Hanford deserve the most stringent possible precautions in place as they make progress on the clean-up,” Senator Cantwell said. “The measures that Senator Murray and I were able to include in the 2018 Appropriations bill will help make progress towards that important goal, and I look forward to seeing them become law."
Both senators have been pushing for improved worker safety protections at Hanford. In December of last year, both senators called on then-Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to implement new worker safety recommendations and quickly sent the same message to Secretary Rick Perry upon his confirmation in March. In March, the senators also urged DOE’s Office of the Inspector General to look into employee concerns with the workers’ compensation claims process at Hanford, which the Inspector General has agreed to investigate. In addition, the senators are pushing the U.S. Department of Labor to ensure current and former Hanford workers receive the health care and benefits they deserve and have earned through their dedicated service to the United States.
RELATED STORIES FROM SEN. Murray's webpage
HANFORD: Murray, Cantwell, Wyden Call on Top Energy Official to Immediately Implement New Worker Safety Recommendations
PRESS RELEASE ISSUED Dec 05 2016
(Washington, D.C.) – Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Ron Wyden (D-OR) urged the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to take immediate action to protect workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington state by implementing new safety recommendations. The recommendations were released this week after a months-long review to address chemical vapor exposures at the Hanford tank farms by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a federal agency that is independent from DOE. NIOSH proposed recommendations within all four areas it assessed, including exposure assessment, exposure control, safety and health management, and medical. The NIOSH review included all workers and organizations that work within, or near, the Hanford tank farms.
In the letter to Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, the Senators wrote: “With the Review in hand it is now critical that DOE take swift and definitive actions to implement the recommendations. In addressing the recommendations, we request that DOE develop an implementation plan which includes a clear schedule and the funding necessary to carry them out successfully. DOE should also work to institutionalize the improvements in workforce safety that result from the NIOSH Review to ensure that program changes continue from contractor to contractor… We owe the men and women who work in the tank farms the highest safety standards to protect them from these hazards.”
Cantwell, Murray Push for Better Worker Safety Protection, End Retaliation Against Hanford Workers and Whistleblowers
PRESS RELEASE ISSUED Mar 08 2017
Washington, D.C. – Today, Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Senator Patty Murray (D-Wash.) wrote the Acting Inspector General in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to urge implementation of safety recommendations for Hanford workers and to encourage protection of whistleblowers. The senators also requested that the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) review the third-party company who handles workers’ compensation claims at Hanford, Penser North America, Inc.
Hanford workers and union representation have expressed concern that, after exposure to dangerous materials at the workplace, medical claims are not being adequately addressed. The senators write: “We have been informed of multiple accounts of claims being dismissed on arbitrary grounds, tactics bordering on intimidation and actions taken to discredit worker claims. The seriousness of these allegations demands action.”
In response to these troubling reports, Sens. Cantwell and Murray requested the OIG investigate the treatment of workers and claims brought during the term of Penser’s contract with DOE. To this end, the senators requested the OIG provide answers to the following:
1. Review any allegations of harassment and/or intimidation in relation to workers who have filed workers’ compensation claims due to workplace related injuries or illnesses at Hanford.
2. Does the department perform any form of oversight on the third-party administrator, Penser? Is there any oversight specific to the management of claims? If not, why not?
3. To what extent, if at all, does the department work with the third-party administrator, Penser, to administer the workers’ compensation claims program?
4. Are the doctors and/or medical providers selected by Penser qualified to determine health conditions caused by exposure to chemicals at Hanford? What methodology is used to ensure the doctors and/or medical providers are qualified?
5. Are the doctors and/or medical providers selected by Penser provided all of the necessary and relevant information related to a workplace injury or illness to make an accurate determination?
6. Please detail the number of workers’ compensation claims that have been approved for a workplace injury or illness caused by chemical vapor exposure. Further, please provide the number of workers’ compensation claims denied in which chemical vapor exposure was detailed as the cause.
7. Develop a process by which the OIG conducts annual reviews on the implementation of current and future recommendations on health and safety practices at Hanford.
To further complicate safety matters at Hanford, DOE issued a two-month stay on vital protections provided to whistleblowers in a previous regulation. “We fear that halting this regulation would discourage both whistleblowers from stepping forward with safety concerns and workers from raising concerns with health and safety practices,” the senators write.
DOE PRESS RELEASE: Hanford contractor agrees to settle penalty for waste
PRESS RELEASE ISSUED 7. 7. 17
RICHLAND, WA — A company that holds contracts for major portions of the cleanup at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation has agreed to establish a temporary holding area for waste that hasn’t been analyzed.
The agreement is part of a settlement between CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company – known as CHPRC – and the Washington State Department of Ecology. The settlement emerged from court mediation after CHPRC appealed an Ecology order and $50,000 penalty issued in August 2016.
“It is important to make sure that their cleanup work complies with regulatory requirements in order to make the site safer for people and to reduce environmental threats,” said Jared Mathey, an Ecology compliance inspector. “This agreement fulfills those goals.”
The company uses Hanford’s historic T Plant to treat and store mixed waste (a combination of radioactive and dangerous chemical materials) at Hanford. Workers will use the holding area for wastes generated at T Plant that need to be evaluated. This ensures that the waste held in each container is properly analyzed before moving it into storage.
CHPRC has also agreed to enhanced record-keeping on all of the waste that it generates and subsequently stores at T Plant. The records will allow Ecology to more accurately track what’s being stored and how long it’s been in storage.
Waste storage methods and record-keeping were at issue in the order and penalty that Ecology issued last year. In the settlement agreement, CHPRC doesn’t admit that it was acting improperly but pledges to meet Ecology’s requirements for storage and record-keeping moving forward. The agreement lifts the penalty entirely, but allows imposition of up to $25,000 in stipulated penalties if certain terms aren’t met.
T Plant was the world’s first facility to extract plutonium from uranium fuel rods from a nuclear reactor. And it’s the only one of five plutonium extraction plants built at Hanford that’s still in use – although not for its original purpose. Today CHPRC uses the plant as a certified Treatment, Storage and Disposal Facility to sample, identify, treat and repackage Hanford waste, as well as to repair equipment.
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Continuing our Milking the System report
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