Flats compensation case stirs lawmakers

Deceased worker's daughter's appeal strikes a chord

By Laura Frank, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

Christopher Tomlinson / Special To The Rocky

Loa Richards, left, and her daughter, Donna DeKruger, hold a photo of Warren Richards, who died of severe stomach cancer in 1991 at age 52 after working at Rocky Flats.

Donna DeKruger never intended to stir things up like this.

Last month, she fired off a letter to her congressman and called up a newspaper reporter to tell her story - things she'd never done before.

She had only intended to help her mother, the widow of a Rocky Flats nuclear weapons worker who got shut out of federal compensation when the government changed the rules midstream. Now, DeKruger might just wind up helping a lot more people.

Tuesday, three Colorado congressmen - Democrats Mark Udall, John Salazar and Ed Perl mutter - sent a letter to the U.S. secretaries of Labor and Health lambasting their agencies for thwarting Congress' intent for the program. They cited the experience of DeKruger's family as an example.

Members of a White House panel overseeing the program will discuss Thursday whether her family's case is proof that the new rules are making it harder for sick workers and their survivors to qualify for compensation.

"I feel like Erin Brockovich," says DeKruger, who, like the heroine of movie fame, is blond, determined and now bent on helping others. "That's what the lady at the post office calls me now."

'Open and shut case'

The congressmen's letter says, in part, that unnecessary steps have "added costs to the taxpayers and months of uncertainty to a claim that . . . should be an open and shut case."

By changing the rules, it says, "it appears that the Department of Labor, once again, is attempting to deny proper compensation to the Cold War veterans who worked at Rocky Flats."

A Health Department spokeswoman said the agency would respond to the letter. Labor spokesman Loren Smith said his department was committed to following the law.

"We will continue to work . . . to ensure that Rocky Flats workers and their families have accurate information about eligibility and the claims process," Smith said.

DeKruger's father, Warren Richards, made tools that created the plutonium spheres at the heart of America's atomic bombs. He died in 1991 at age 52 of stomach cancer.

After Congress created a compensation program in 2000 to atone for lost lives and harmed health among nuclear weapons workers, DeKruger helped her mother apply, having watched her sell her farm and struggle with her own health after taking care of her dying husband.

Twice in six years, the government said the family failed to prove a link between Richards' cancer and his work. Then, a few days before Christmas, the family learned that program officials in Denver had recommended they receive $300,000 compensation. But that changed again after Labor officials changed the rules.

This latest controversy in an ongoing saga is over how Labor officials determine who deserves a fast track to compensation and who must endure a years-long process of trying to link their illness to their exposures.

High-risk buildings

To decide who gets on the fast track, Labor officials are relying on old work records to determine if employees were irradiated or, if unmonitored, worked in buildings where they were at high risk of irradiation. Among other issues, the new rules require that the employee spent at least 250 days in one of those buildings.

In the case of Warren Richards, his work records show the tool engineer was not officially assigned to one of the high-risk buildings.

But Richards' boss, Joe Farmer, told the Rocky Mountain News that Richards' job often required that he work in high-risk areas. "He would definitely have met that criteria" of 250 days in the plutonium buildings, Farmer said, "but it was never in the record."

Furthermore, the congressmen say the law does not require 250 days in a specific building.

Farmer planned to send the Labor Department a sworn statement about Richards' work situation this week.

Critical flaw cited

Rocky Flats workers and their advocates say the Richards case shows a critical flaw in the way Labor officials are deciding who gets compensation and who doesn't: The work records don't reflect what employees actually did.

And not all employees or their survivors would be able to find someone such as Farmer who could swear to their work from nearly five decades ago.

That's the situation in which Andrea Blocher finds herself. Blocher's father, Franklin Chilton, died in 1994 at age 59 of cancer that invaded his esophagus and stomach. But Blocher knows of no one still living who would know how many days her dad worked in specific buildings.

Her mother, who also worked at Rocky Flats, might have been able to, but a brain tumor has left her memory sketchy.

Like the Richards' case, Blocher's family was notified this month that a December recommendation for compensation was being rescinded. "This is so frustrating," said Blocher, of Franktown.

Donna DeKruger has talked to Blocher and at least one other Denver-area family in a similar situation. She said she hopes her fight will make it easier for others.

"How many people are out there and just have said enough is enough?" DeKruger said. "I hope this helps them, too."

frankl@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-5091

• April 2, 2008

  12:24 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  kathyM writes:

  Donna DeKrueger, you rock! The government is behaving worse than the insurance company in "The Rainmaker." Everyone who worked at Rocky Flats should be covered without question.

• April 2, 2008

  7:07 a.m.

  Suggest removal

  vudumom writes:

  Absolutely agree! , kathyM. The way these people have been treated is disgusting. Everyone who worked at Rocky Flats should be compensated,without question. If the Labor Department thinks for one minute that anyone who worked there was not affected they should put radioactive materials throughout their own building and homes and see how comfortable they are working around it, bringing it home to their families and having their families live around the toxic materials. Then we will see who gets sick and deny them compensation saying they were just destined to get sick anyway.

• April 2, 2008

  12:21 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  ABlock35 writes:

  As former examiner inside at the Seattle EEOICP Office, I would like to share a story that still disgusts me today, because like many of you, I had a different perspective about the federal government before working there.

  It was fiscal year end and the Seattle Asst. Director Tracy Johnson called a meeting to tell us (examiners) that the Seattle EEOICP Office had 200 + Aging claims that we needed to get out the door by fiscal year end. From my notes, I quote " We have 200 + cases showing up on our Aging Lists, and I know that 99.9 % of those claims are denials, so I would like each examiner to pump out at least 4 RDs denials a day". The problem with that statement was how did she know that the all 200+ cases were denials? After all, it takes at least 1/2 the day for any examiner to go through one file, and since Asst. District Director is seldom in her office, I found that statement to be an arbitrary command to deny claims so that Seattle's stats would look the best in the US.
  
  I have been in contact with the Senator Salazar's Office and I have formally requested permission to speak, under oath, at the next EEOICP Hearing. I am awaiting his answer and will keep my many friends inside various DOE victims networks posted if my request has been granted.

  Today, my opinion of the federal government has changed and I now believe that the federal system has turned into a place where people get jobs because of the federal managers they know not because of the education, skills and experience necessary to apply the laws according to the true intent of Congress. The federal employee system has turned into a system of hiring friends of friends; great example: all high ups inside the Seattle EEOICP Office are friends of District Director, Christy Long (now in Denver).

  I have faith that the Senate will do the right thing by taking away federal employees qualified immunity, which will allow claimants to sue any federal employee who unjustly denies their claim. If this were a corporation, they would have already been sued, thus corrective acitons would have already been taken.

  Anne K. Block is a former federal examiner who worked for Christy Long ( now in Denver) at the Seattle DOL EEOICP Office, is a licensed WA Attorney, and a writer.

  Anne K. Block welcomes all letters and stories and can be reached at lifeisgood357@comcast.net