Energy Northwest Fined for Waste Storage Violations

By Chris Mulick, Tri-City Herald, Kennewick, Wash.

Oct. 5–The state Department of Ecology smacked Energy Northwest with a $120,000 fine Thursday for “serious and chronic dangerous and mixed waste management deficiencies” over “many years” involving non-nuclear industrial materials.

The numerous failings to properly label and store common wastes — including solvents, paint, oil, cleaners and other materials — did not lead to any known accidents or injuries at the nuclear Columbia Generating Station and one of two nearby plants that never was finished.

But the state agency is most concerned about a training program Energy Northwest acknowledges is deficient.

“It just wasn’t specific enough,” said Ron Skinnarland, manager of Ecology’s Waste Management section. “People wouldn’t be able to do their jobs based on that.”

Energy Northwest believes the fine, the third largest this year by Ecology, is excessive because there were no injuries or major environmental impacts. It is considering an appeal.

Spokesman Brad Peck described the array of violations the state found during an inspection in July and August as a “litany of lower-level issues with varying degrees of potential for harm” and agreed training is the real issue.

“I’m not suggesting for a minute we are lily-white,” he said. “We have some work to do.”

The inspection found “abandoned dangerous wastes,” unlabeled chemical wastes, waste management activities being performed by untrained workers, poor record-keeping and spills that weren’t reported to the agency. Similar findings were noted after inspections in 2000 and 2005.

The latest inspection found training consisted of “self-paced” computer training and reading assignments, not classroom or on-the-job training state rules require. The agency cited environmental services staff hired in May who were handling wastes in June before finishing the required training in August. And one required course was taught by a worker not qualified to do so.

Among the discoveries, inspectors found two containers of unusable chemical material in an environmental lab that hadn’t been touched in 10 years. In another instance, inspectors found small containers of wastes that were up to 20 years old.

Also found were soil samples from unreported oil spills, drums and buckets containing unknown and unlabeled liquids, and an unreported diesel spill that occurred over a two-month period and contaminated soil in an area eight feet wide and six feet deep.

Skinnarland said it wasn’t clear workers knew how to handle and manage wastes properly.

“When we asked questions, we didn’t get clear answers,” he said.

Peck said training programs already are being rewritten, and wastes and other materials are being better labeled.

He said the inspection “greatly increased attention to the problems that were not front of mind. We were not aware of this extent of training deficiency.”

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