Former Hanford employees testify on bill to help sick workers

Lawmakers heard emotional testimony from several former Hanford workers at a committee public hearing in Olympia Wednesday.

House Bill 1723, written by Larry Haler, presumes that occupational diseases for certain employees is a result of working at Hanford.

Bartolla Garza is the wife of a former Site worker who testified.

"We're in a Catch-22, because we go to a doctor and says 'Well how did it happen?' and we say 'It happened at Hanford,' and they say, 'That is L&I, we don't take care of you," and then we go to L&I and they tell us, 'No it is not work related,' and deny our L&I claim," says Garza.

Lawrence Rowse worked for over 20 years at Hanford.

"I've been diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy, dementia, neurological damage, I have noise bleeds for no, you know, for no specific reasons," says Rowse.

But, Natalie Fillinger of the Washington Self-Insurers Association, however, says not to get caught up in sad stories of workers.

"Before you make sweeping law changes, go find the actual internal reports that have been thoroughly reviewed and investigated these issues, before you're making changes. You're hearing one side of the story, and we haven't heard all of the objective independent investigations," says Fillinger.

Bob Battle of the Association of Washington Business is opposed to the bill because he believes its too broad and sets a bad precedence.

"Because what it says is that if I work 8 hours on a facility, whether I had any connection in a 540 acre facility, I could be in the guard shack and I could still bring as long as I had a particular condition, the presumption shifts now to an employer to prove that it is not related to you working 8 hours on this job," says Battle.

The bill passed the House and had a committee hearing, and could get a vote on the Senate Floor later in the session.