http://www.steelworkers-usw.org/uswa/program/content/2514.php
October 27, 2005
Steelworkers Union Says DOE Would be Courting
Disaster in Allowing DuPont Involvement in
Operation and Clean-Up of Nuclear Weapons Plant in South Carolina
NASHVILLE, Tenn., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The United Steelworkers
(USW)
today sent the following letter to Samuel Bodman, U.S. Secretary
of Energy,
concerning a recent press release by DuPont Company that it will
partner with
Fluor Corporation to compete with other companies for contracts
worth $7.5
billion in managing and cleaning up the Savannah River nuclear
weapons site
near Aiken, South Carolina:
October 27, 2005
Samuel W. Bodman
Secretary of Energy
U.S. Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585
Dear Secretary Bodman:
We recently learned that DuPont Company, in a strategic alliance
with
Fluor Corporation, will be bidding on contracts valued at $7.5
billion at the
Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The USW is in a unique
position to
judge DuPont's prospective role in managing and cleaning up the
Department of
Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site. We currently represent approximately
5,000 workers at eight DOE facilities along with 1,800 DuPont
employees at six
of the company's plants. We know first-hand what it takes to operate
a safe
nuclear facility, and have intimate knowledge of how DuPont treats
its workers
and the communities where its plants are located.
DuPont has an abysmal record in the area
of worker and community safety,
and is one of the major polluters in the U.S. Hiring DuPont to
manage and
clean up the Savannah River Site is tantamount to hiring a wolf
to guard a hen
house.
DOE surely remembers that DuPont was literally forced to abandon
its 35-
year operation of the Savannah River Site in 1989, after receiving
heavy
criticism from DOE for its operational and safety record that
included
accidents which could have resulted in cataclysmic accidents.
Based on this
experience alone, we believe DOE would be courting disaster in
allowing DuPont
to be become involved in the operation of the Savannah River Site.
DuPont's
management and so-called clean-up of the site could put many lives
at risk.
Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency launched an investigation
to
determine if DuPont withheld important information concerning
the health and
environmental effects of C8, a potentially harmful chemical that
has
contaminated community water supplies and entered the blood of
most Americans.
The Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice
has issued
a subpoena to DuPont about C8, as part of a federal grand jury
investigation.
DuPont recently settled a multi-million dollar lawsuit in West
Virginia after
C8 leaked into the local water supply, and medical monitoring
is currently
being conducted on thousands of residents.
It is notable that Fluor, DuPont's prospective
partner in this endeavor,
is the main contractor for DuPont at the company's Fayetteville,
North
Carolina site where C8 is produced. The C8 plant began operating
in late 2002
with DuPont's assurances that C8 would not leak into the air or
water.
However, three months later C8 was discovered in groundwater and
discharges to
a nearby river. The USW's own investigation revealed that information
about
the contamination was not disclosed to state officials for almost
six months.
I am enclosing a recent USW report, Not
Walking the Talk: DuPont's Untold
Safety Failures, that documents DuPont's poor record
of safety performance and
environmental compliance. The report also shows how the company
covers up
this deplorable record through carefully engineered public relations
efforts.
DuPont's spin doctors will be hard at work to fool the public
and perhaps
the government into believing that the company can safely operate
the Savannah
River Site.
The USW intends to carefully monitor the awarding of contracts
at the
Savannah River Site, and will continue to educate the public about
DuPont's
deplorable and dangerous record on worker and community safety.
DOE should
not put workers and the public at risk by allowing DuPont to perform
work at
the Savannah River Site.
Sincerely,
James K. Phillips, Jr.
Chair, USW Atomic Workers' Council
c: Leo Gerard, USW International President
Ken Test, Chair of USW DuPont Council