Ailing Oak Ridge workers and residents take
a two-pronged approach to secure health care for themselves as well as an
environmental cleanup in the area
by Joe Morris
Janet Michel has nickel poisoning, and that's just the beginning of the Oak
Ridge native's medical problems. She is awaiting determination on her claim
for long-term disability from the insurance carrier for Lockheed Martin,
the U.S. Department of Energy's Oak Ridge contractor. And she's far from
the only one who suspects her health problems are tied to the DOE's local
operations. The alleged culprit—an incinerator burning hazardous waste
as part of environmental clean-up efforts at the Cold War fortress—has
been the focus of much public outcry and governmental inquiry this year.
A report due out this week from a panel appointed by Gov. Don Sundquist will
address some of the concerns about the incinerator. But Michel—a Lockheed
employee on medical leave—and others critical of the DOEs Oak Ridge
operations are skeptical of the panel's impartiality. They see themselves
as the front line in a protracted struggle to make Oak Ridge's present and
future safe from its toxic past.
"What we're trying to build here is that there is this sick system of health
and safety within DOE, and it has dramatic effects on people in terms of
their health," says Michel, president of Coalition for a Healthy Environment
and part of a group that has dubbed themselves "The Exposed." "This is the
first time anybody's tried to make that connection. As energy and illness
allow us to, we would really like to see things change so that no one else
will have to go through what we've gone through. To me, it's the only ethical
thing to do."
The incinerator sits in the East Tennessee Technology Park, a.k.a. the former
K-25 plant, part of the government's three-plant system responsible for
implementing the Manhattan Project (which led to the atomic bomb). During
the 1980s, the region was designated a federal Superfund site, as mercury
and other metals began showing up in high concentrations in water and soil.
Nevertheless, the DOE and Lockheed Martin Energy Systems and Lockheed Martin
Energy Research, its contractor for the three government-owned Oak Ridge
plants, went ahead in 1990 with the construction and implementation of a
toxic waste incinerator for both local waste and that brought in from DOE
sites around the country.
It is the only one in the nation allowed to burn three types of toxic waste:
mildly radioactive, PCB-contaminated, and waste containing hazardous materials
including heavy metals. A firestorm of criticism rose among environmental
groups, who decried the amount and variety of waste brought into the site.
They eventually found an ally—facility workers and nearby residents
who were becoming sick with a variety of unusual maladies. Some continue
to work, while others are awaiting rulings on whether or not they are eligible
for long-term or permanent disability benefits, a process complicated, they
say, by the government's unwillingness to admit to any safety breaches or
wrongdoing in the facilities' operations. And for some time is growing short
(the toll is mounting—Michel says one of the affected workers may have
only a few weeks to live, and the suicide of another is attributed to health
problems).
Any discussion of the facility has both sides hauling out stacks of studies
backing up their position, with stalemate the usual result. Those who speak
out against the alleged safety abuses and environmental concerns are branded
whistle blowers and say they have faced varying degrees of reprisal. For
its part, Lockheed Martin actively and continuously disputes many of the
claims, most vociferously those regarding employee safety and the implementation
of safety equipment and safeguards, as well as the allegations of reprisal
and vengeance firings.
"If we knew of a manager who had told an employee not to report a safety
problem or violation, we would take serious action," says Mark Musolf, community
relationships spokesperson for Lockheed. "That sort of thing is not fostered
or condoned—if we're aware of it."
"The Exposed" were the focus of a lengthy series of articles in the Nashville
Tennesseean earlier this year, and were subsequently invited to testify
to the state Legislature about their concerns. That led to Sundquist's panel,
which is supposed to deliver its report this week. But those who called for
the study claim the panel has a skewed perspective that will render the effort
useless.
"The whole creation of this panel was because there are these workers who
have been affected, or potentially will be, by environmental toxins," says
Cliff Honicker, director of the American Environmental Health and Studies
Project, a subgroup of the Coalition for a Healthy Environment. "My criticism
is that no one was appointed by the affected workers to sit on that committee.
If you look at the people on the panel, a number of them have had DOE contracts
in the past, which is a potential for conflict of interest.
"Is there anyone on that panel who has linked a person's environment to specific
health problems? No one has done so. There are professionals, experts out
there, who have done that type of research. Those are the sort of people
that should have been on that panel," he charges. "I don't think this report
will solve the problems or resolve the issues. I think it's going to come
from the diligent efforts of these workers who keep digging, finding new
information and more people that have been affected. They are becoming their
own experts. That plus the fact that some of these people have Ph.D.'s and
Masters' degrees in toxicology. They have their own pool of expertise."
Indeed, such is the level of knowledge among the band of affected individuals
that they are moving ahead with their own research. Sandra Reid of the Oak
Ridge Health Liaison says it's crucial to develop research to identify how
contaminates are affecting the community in general around the plants.
"One thing we are working toward is an environmental health clinic, where
we would bring in clinicians, physicians who would examine the patients.
These would be experts in toxicology, who would look at the symptoms to see
if they correlate with the types of exposure that happen here."
Toward that end, a symptom survey is being prepared that would target the
subdivision of Scarborough, which is the closest residential site to any
nuclear weapon facility in the United States, Reid says. Some 650 families
live in the targeted area, and they were chosen for more than their site
proximity.
(Their efforts may soon be complemented with federal help—earlier this
week, Sen. Fred Thompson asked the Centers for Disease Control to investigate
Oak Ridge health problems.)
A recent meeting sponsored by Michel's organization and others, including
the Roane County Chapter of Save Our Cumberland Mountains, the Oak Ridge
Environmental Peace Alliance, the American Environmental Health Studies Project,
and the Oak Ridge Health Liaison, heard from affected workers, some still
employed, some not, by Lockheed, who pledge to continue the fight until they
have won some kind of acknowledgment of accountability. All demanded
accountability from both DOE and Lockheed, a demand company officials say
is already being met.
The company "tries to work with people as much as is humanly possible," Musolf
says. "From a technical standpoint, we don't have all the answers. We want
to hear their thoughts. We just finished a cleanup of Poplar Creek that was
heavily influenced by members of the community. That work is just now
concluding."
On the health issues, Musolf rebuts, "We've brought in outside people from
the University of Alabama and hired three doctors, one of whom was chosen
by the employees to work with them. The answers are not coming as quick as
everyone would like. We also had occupational health physicians in from Boston
and are awaiting their report."
As for the incinerator and its usage, a list is forthcoming to the community
about how much waste is coming in and where it's coming from, Musolf says.
A portion of the state's study is also expected to address the waste stream.
DOE spokespersons have said that the state has no control over the amount
of waste it brings into the state, a position Sundquist has said could lead
to "a confrontation."
Whatever the result of the study, and of ongoing cleanup efforts, the chief
concerns for Michel and others remains health care and getting the word out
about the dangers of exposure. The incinerator makes for a good target, but
it is not their only concern.
"It's not the only problem, and I get really irritated with people who refer
to us as 'you incinerator folks,' as if that's all we care about," Michel
says. "We've never said that, not at any time have we said that. It's a piece
of the puzzle, but another, greater piece of the puzzle is that there is
an unacceptable attitude toward health and safety out there."
She is also aware of another question often directed at the agitators: If
things are so bad in Oak Ridge, why don't they move?
"We ask ourselves this question every day. 'Is it time to leave?' I don't
live there now, but some people tell me I'm still too close, while others
say the [airborne toxins] are diluted and don't make any difference. My question
is, is there any place in the country that's not polluted? I don't think
there is. The problems here are ubiquitous; it's a problem with industrial
society in general."
Still, she says Oak Ridge has a bigger problem than the rest of the country
because "what has happened in Oak Ridge is slightly unique in that we have
the greatest quantity and diversity of hazardous materials of any of the
DOE sites. There are hundreds of materials used here, and the incinerator
has been a little bit faster in disbursing some of this stuff. I know they
increased the amounts of metals it burned sevenfold in 1995 and 1996, and
if you look at the lists of those metals, they are the same ones showing
up in people's bodies."
Whatever the panel's report, at least one division of Lockheed will soon
be out of the cleanup business. However, rumors of an entire pullout are
completely erroneous, Musolf says.
"There is no timeline for a government pullout in Oak Ridge," he says. "A
year-and-a-half ago, a program was put in place to accelerate the cleanup
of both the legacy waste and the waste sites, and it initially was referred
to as a 10-year plan. People took that to mean that in 10 years, everything
was going to be pulled out. That's not the case. And it may take more than
10 years—we have to be credible with Congress and get the funding. There
are a lot of other necessary and needed social programs wanting cash from
the same pot. We're limited."
Keeping the contractors straight in Oak Ridge can be a bit of a challenge.
Lockheed Martin Energy Systems operates both the Y-12 and K-25 plants. Lockheed
Martin Energy Research operates the laboratories at the Oak Ridge National
Laboratory (the former X-10). The DOE has put out requests for bids from
other companies to operate the cleanup programs, based at the East Tennessee
Technology Park. Musolf says that will not affect Lockheed.
"The company's presence will remain, but there will be a new cleanup company
handling the waste issues," he says.
In the meantime, "The Exposed" continue to expose themselves loudly and publicly,
bent on keeping pressure on those they say continue to hide abuses that endanger
people on a daily basis.
"I've been involved with research efforts for 15 years, and I've never seen
a group so dedicated and knowledgeable in their efforts," Honicker says.
"I think there will come a time that the public will see these people as
the ones who are educating the experts. We have a lot to be grateful for
to them, for doing it—I certainly am."
At the recent meeting, held on Veterans Day, Michel compared the Oak Ridge
group to the nation's veterans. "Many of these people knew there were hazards
but were not told their jobs were dangerous. They and the surrounding citizens
have been unwilling subjects of experiments. These are Cold War veterans,
and they should get the same benefits as war veterans, because they have
defended their country in a different way, and there have been some who have
died in that defense."
Their talking done, their stories shared, the group left the meeting. They
dispersed to their individual autos and drove off as a slight mist from a
nearby pond covered the roadway.
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