Doe Orders Reinstatement Of Hanford Whistleblower

The U.S. Department of Labor has ordered a subcontractor at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation to rehire a geologist who the department says was terminated for making safety-related complaints.

Jerry D. Davis “was removed in retaliation for his protected activities,” the department said Thursday in ordering SGN Eurisys Services Corp. to reinstate him.

But company President Bruce Morson said Davis was laid off because his company had no work for the geologist.

“Dr. Davis is a geologist with extensive skills and knowledge on vadose zone work, and vadose zone work isn’t in SESC’s scope,” Morson said.

The vadose zone is the underground area beneath Hanford’s hazardous-waste storage tanks but above ground water.

The company was evaluating whether to appeal, he said.

Davis said his concerns centered on a plan by the Department of Energy and its Hanford contractors to empty 177 underground storage tanks. They contain toxic, radioactive chemicals that have yet to be fully identified by scientists.

After the liquid is pumped out, solid crusts will remain. Scientists want to use high-pressure hoses to knock the crust apart and sluice it out to a plant where waste will be turned into more stable, glass-like logs.

But Davis fears the high-pressure liquid might tear the tanks apart, allowing contaminated water to flow into soil below the tanks. That, in turn, could carry radioactive material and other deadly substances down to ground water and eventually out to the Columbia River, Davis said.

“Once I started making some of these complaints, my work was reduced by about 80 percent,” said Davis, who worked at Hanford for nearly 20 years.

He was laid off on July 29. On Thursday, the Labor Department ordered SGN Eurisys Services Corp. and its parent company, Numatec Hanford Inc., to reinstate Davis with back pay, and to pay him $10,000 in damages plus attorney fees.