Ex-worker sues over Yucca silica

Suzanne Struglinski

Friday, March 12, 2004 | 10:56 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Former Yucca Mountain employee Gene Griego filed a class-action lawsuit against several Energy Department contractors in District Court in Clark County on Thursday alleging the companies exposed him and countless others to dangerous levels of silica and other known toxins at the Yucca Mountain project.

Griego, a Clark County resident, filed the suit on behalf of himself and anyone who was involved with drilling the tunnels or who visited the tunnels at Yucca Mountain from 1992 through 2003.

"DOE estimates that at least 1,200-1,500 workers were exposed significantly to silica and erionite dusts at the site," according to the brief. "Visitors likely rank in the thousands."

Members of Congress, the Nevada Legislature, public interest groups, the media and other groups have toured the site.

Griego, who worked at Yucca Mountain from 1993 to 2002 during the research phase, was diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease last year.

The lawsuit marks the latest turn in what is becoming a growing problem for the Energy Department since it announced its silicosis screening program in January. After receiving complaints and requests from former workers who dug tunnels during research for the planned nuclear waste storage site at Yucca, 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, the department opted to create a screening program as "the right thing to do."

Then, Judy Kallas, an industrial hygienist who monitored the dust levels for Kiewit, a contracting company, said in a sworn deposition that over four months in 1996, her supervisor made her change silica level measurements so they would be within applicable limits so the company would not have to provide workers with respirators.

The lawsuit lists 13 defendants, including branches of Kiewit, Bechtel Corp., Bechtel Nevada Corp., Bechtel SAIC Co., TRW Environmental Safety Systems, Washington Group International, Parsons Brinckerhoff Construction Services, and other companies based in Nevada, Delaware and New York.

Soon after the department announced its screening program, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked about what the department knew, when it knew it and what it could have done to prevent it.

Margaret Chu, Energy's Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management director, wrote Reid last month saying the department did not require or enforce safety precautions during the tunnel boring and digging operations from 1992 through 1996.

The lawsuit claims the contractors "intentionally, deliberately, callously and/or with willful and wanton disregard exposed workers and visitors" to silica and other materials known to be dangerous inside the mountain. It said the department and its contractors knew or should have known the mountain contained silica, erionite, mordenite and other toxic minerals that would be turned to dust when drilled. The dust could be inhaled or tracked out of the site without the appropriate precautions.

"Defendants placed a higher priority on the site characterization deadlines than they did on human safety and health, deliberately deceiving their workforce about the hazards so as to impose harm upon workers and visitors to save time and money," according to the brief.

Joe Egan, Nevada's main Yucca Mountain attorney of Washington law firm Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch and Cynkar, one of the firms that filed the case, said anyone who was in a tunnel for more than two hours could have been affected.

Egan said the lawsuit seeks punitive damage payments not just for the workers but for anyone who has visited the tunnels since even small exposures to the materials can give people a higher probability of getting sick. He said the companies concealed the fact the dust existed and did not tell anyone while they went to visit the site.

"Visitors have every right to be worried about it and they should be compensated for it," Egan said. "This was a massive, corrupted, fraudulent scheme to save money on labor costs, budget and schedules."

Dust brought home on clothes or shoes after a tour or work in the tunnels could affect people at home as well, Egan said. Some of the dust contained material 100 times more dangerous than asbestos.

Wetting dry rock before drilling is a "standard practice" in mining operations to avoid clouds of dust, but the department opted out, Egan said.

Chu said at an NRC meeting in Washington Thursday that during mining operations, the contractors did not want to wet the tunnels since it could have affected the water and moisture studies that were to be done on the site.

Egan said, "That's a huge deal, because people who drill, and geologists, they know" that soaking dry rock before drilling is critical.

The suit does not ask for a specific dollar amount in damages, but Egan said the average silicosis cases have brought in awards in the $5 million range, based on conversations he has had with silicosis lawyers.

Las Vegas law firm Albright, Stoddard, Warnick and Palmer, which typically deals with worker's compensation and personal injury litigation, and Hutton and Hutton, a Kansas firm known for personal-injury class-action litigation will also work on the case.

Reid will hold a congressional field hearing Monday in Las Vegas on the silicosis problems, where, Chu, who oversees the entire project, is to testify. Griego is also set to testify.

"What happened to these workers is a tragedy," Reid said in a prepared statement he issued after learning of the lawsuit. "It was also 100 percent preventable, and someone is responsible for the fact that hundreds of workers may get sick and face death. The Department of Energy should never have allowed this to happen, and I will do everything I can to help these workers find justice. I intend to use my hearing on Monday to put the facts on the record as we continue searching for the full truth."

Reid has also asked the Labor Department to review the issue.

Chu said at a Nuclear Regulatory Commission forum in Washington Thursday that the problem only recently came to the department's attention but now the Energy Department has a "big binder" of information available for workers and others with concerns.

But Michele Boyd, a legislative representative for Public Citizen, said getting information about the program has been next to impossible. There is nothing on the Energy Department's website beyond the press release announcing the program, and the hotline that potentially affected workers can call is not widely distributed, she said.

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