Category: – DOE

February 2024,

Related to uncontrolled exposure to potentially dangerous levels of carbon monoxide at the Idaho Cleanup Project.

On January 31, 2024, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Enterprise Assessments, Office of Enforcement issued Enforcement Letter (WEL-2024-02) to Idaho Environmental Coalition, LLC for deficiencies in implementing DOE’s 10 C.F.R. Part 851 Worker Safety and Health Program requirements related to uncontrolled exposure to potentially dangerous levels of carbon monoxide at the Idaho Cleanup Project.

Enforcement Letter, Idaho Environmental Coalition, LLC | Department of Energy

“The event occurred on January 10, 2023, when workers were operating a
gasoline-powered welder generator inside the NRF-601 high bay. Earlier in the
day, IEC approved a work order change (WOC) for work order number 597489 to
move the generator from outdoors to inside the high bay. The WOC included a
warning that the generator produced harmful emissions that constituted a
respiratory hazard. In response to the WOC, workers established a safety
boundary around the generator, inserted a flex pipe into the exhaust stack, and
passed the flex pipe through the wall of the building to the outside…

…IEC did not report the CO exposure on the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration Form 300 or in the DOE Computerized Accident Incident
Reporting System database due to a misinterpretation of occupational exposure
reporting requirements.”