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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Hanford drug tests prompt six to quit

Testing ordered after pot found

RICHLAND – Six workers at the nation’s most contaminated nuclear site decided to quit rather than submit to drug testing after a baggie of marijuana was found in a building at a landfill, a spokesman for a cleanup contractor said Tuesday.

A manager for a company that runs the landfill at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation found the baggie in the workers’ day room on Aug. 8 following a staff meeting, said Todd Nelson, spokesman for Washington Closure Hanford.

Washington Closure manages some cleanup at the highly contaminated site and oversees the Environmental Restoration Disposal Facility, a landfill for low-level radioactive and hazardous waste. A subcontractor, S.M. Stoller Corp., runs the landfill.

The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of a top-secret project to build the atomic bomb. Today, work there centers on cleaning up the highly contaminated site.

The Benton County Sheriff’s Office confirmed the bag contained marijuana, but drug-sniffing dogs did not turn up anything else, Nelson said. S.M. Stoller then ordered drug tests for about 100 workers.

Six workers resigned rather than be tested. Test results for 18 other employees are pending. All the rest of the tests were negative, Nelson said.