AIKEN - Harry Williams never worked at Savannah River Site, but he can relate to those who labored on the radioactive front lines of the Cold War nuclear weapons installation.
Mr. Williams, 60, is a veteran of the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge, Tenn., site, which is also a nuclear facility. And, like some of his peers at SRS, he says he became ill after being exposed to contaminants.
Many of those workers received compensation from the government. Now the Bush administration wants to contain the costs of the program, and a House subcommittee began hearings on the issue Wednesday.
At the center of the debate is a federal law - the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Act - that gave Mr. Williams and dozens of his ailing Oak Ridge co-workers compensation. That's because they banded together in the mid-1990s, he said in a telephone interview Wednesday, combed through records and demanded answers about the hazards they were exposed to.
When the Energy Department couldn't produce accurate radiation exposure documentation, some workers at the K-25 Oak Ridge plant were automatically paid for their ailments under the act.
"Quite frankly, the DOE just didn't keep good records," Mr. Williams said.
Under the act, workers at other sites, including SRS, have to be independently reviewed before they can receive compensation, a slow process that former workers say is made complicated because of poor record keeping. However, other workers could receive automatic payments under the act if it is proved that they were exposed to radiation and weren't properly monitored.
But that could become more difficult to prove under the White House's plan.
"This is a significant challenge to the program," said Richard Miller, a senior policy analyst with the Government Accountability Project, who planned to testify before the House subcommittee.
Originally, three or four groups of workers got automatic payments under the 2000 act. Four groups have been added to that list since 2001.
In all, more than $1.3 billion has been paid to more than 39,000 sick workers under one part of the compensation plan, which includes those who receive automatic payments and those who were reviewed independently. An additional $88 million was given to workers for medical bills.
It remains to be seen whether any group of workers at SRS qualify for the automatic payments.
Susanne Scott's husband, Virgil, had worked at SRS for more than 40 years when he retired in 1996. They've battled the Energy Department for help with his cancer and kidney problems for years, she said.
"It's beginning to frustrate me," she said, "but we can't stop this fight."
Sick SRS workers who don't qualify for the automatic payments are reviewed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. The organization uses a "site profile" to reconstruct what workers were exposed to. But an independent audit last year by a Washington, D.C.-area firm, Sanford Cohen & Associates, showed that the profile might be insufficient: "For early SRS workers, the site profile lacks a comprehensive evaluation of the early monitoring program with respect to its consistent application, adherence to procedures and record keeping, all of which hold significant implications for reconstructing doses for un-monitored workers during the early years."
Energy Department officials at SRS say the site has thorough records.
"We have a complete set of records," spokesman Jim Giusti said.
Reach Josh Gelinas at (803) 648-1395, ext. 110, or josh.gelinas@augustachronicle.com.
Impact
Members of President Bush's administration have
suggested cutting back on payments to workers who got sick at federal Department
of Energy sites such as Savannah River Site.