State threatens criminal action over Yucca’s safety problems

Tuesday, Sept. 14, 2004 | 9:37 a.m.

SUN WASHINGTON BUREAU

Attorney General Brian Sandoval on Monday put the Energy Department on notice that Nevada may pursue criminal charges against department contractors at Yucca Mountain for not protecting workers.

Nine contractors are named in an amended class-action lawsuit filed Sept. 1, originally filed earlier this year, on behalf of workers who have, or may soon have, diseases such as silicosis brought on by breathing toxic air in Yucca tunnels.

The lawsuit alleges the contractors did not protect workers even though they knew the work was dangerous, in an effort to save time and money. The lawsuit was filed by the firm Egan, Fitzpatrick, Malsch & Cynkar, the same firm hired by Nevada to lead the state's legal effort to halt the Yucca project.

In a letter to the department's Office of Inspector General, Sandoval signalled that the matter may also be the subject of a future criminal investigation by the state.

"The state of Nevada will also be closely following this matter to determine if it warrants action by state authorities," Sandoval wrote.

Sandoval said the class-action suit "raises grave issues of possible corruption, malfeasance, and deliberate violations of law by Department of Energy contractors."

The class-action suit said the department had estimated that 1,200 to 1,500 workers may have been exposed to significant amounts of silica and carcinogenic dusts that cause lung diseases.

The companies are vigorously defending themselves against the lawsuit, Bea Reilley, spokeswoman for Bechtel SAIC Co., LLC., and the contractors named in the lawsuit, has said. She could not comment on the specifics of the lawsuit. But she said the Yucca silica case would not prove to be one of the nation's worst such cases, as lawyers for the workers have described it.