1999 depot incident haunts family

This story was published Mon, Sep 30, 2002

By Karen Zacharias
Herald Oregon bureau

UMATILLA -- Little J.J. doesn't understand why his daddy gets grumpy so much of the time.

Shelby Zenahlik tries to explain to her 5-year-old son that Daddy is very sick. But J.J. doesn't understand that his father has more than a flu bug.

Jim Zenahlik, 40, suffers from chronic headaches, tremors, seizures, heart palpitations and a host of other symptoms that have been traced back to a brain disease called toxic encephalopathy.

The former construction worker at the Umatilla Chemical Depot is one of 36 employees exposed to an undetermined toxin at the depot on Sept. 15, 1999.

The injured workers believe they were exposed to toxic nerve and mustard agents, and are suing the Army and Raytheon Demilitarization Co., now Washington Demilitarization Co.

Last week, a U.S. District Court judge in Portland set the trial for Sept. 15, 2003.

Jim Zenahlik, a Missoula, Mont., electrician, was working on the incinerators being built to destroy the 3,717 tons of deadly VX, GB and mustard gas that are stored 30 miles south of the Tri-Cities.

"These workers clearly demonstrate symptoms of being exposed to something," said Wayne Thomas, program administrator for the environmental regulatory office. "Everyone thinks chemical agents caused it. But we haven't seen any evidence to support that."

Thomas said the workers' symptoms are not consistent with chemical agent exposure.

But Jim Zenahlik remembers the nausea and headaches that overpowered the construction crew. Fumes burned their eyes, noses and lungs. Several men were falling down, throwing up. The crew clamored for help at the first-aid trailer.

"But we were told to wait outside, in direct line of everything," Zenahlik told the Herald during a brief interview last week.

Shelby Zenahlik, 35, says her husband's brain has been poisoned. Doctors suspect toxins seeped into his brain through an open eye socket. He lost his right eye during an industrial accident 15 years ago and wasn't wearing a glass eye or patch.

James McCandlish is the Portland attorney representing the injured workers. He said Zenahlik's declining health is one of the worst cases.

"I've got a dozen and a half clients facing life-debilitating problems from the Sept. 15 incident. Their families have been torn asunder in the process," he said.

In all, the suit names 49 depot employees, most of them injured Sept. 15, and 13 others who say they've been hurt on the job since then.

Shelby Zenahlik is convinced her husband was exposed to chemical agent.

"Watching him deteriorate has been heartbreaking," she said in a phone interview from the couple's Montana home.

There's not much Jim Zenahlik can handle anymore, including long conversations. His neurological system is so messed up that a whiff of perfume can send him into convulsions.

"Jim gets upset when the boys get rambunctious. It's sensory overload for him," she explained. The couple have four children, J.J., Caleb, 4, Sam, 14, and Kaity, 14.

Their dad can't remember how to run a washing machine, and he falls down all the time. He had surgery to bolt his tongue down so he wouldn't swallow it in his sleep. The brain disorder also causes a dementia resembling Alzheimer's.

Because they own their home, the family doesn't qualify for welfare. There was no workers compensation for the injuries. And Shelby Zenahlik can't work because she can't leave her husband at home alone. He might qualify for Social Security benefits but hasn't been able to get a hearing yet.

Shelby Zenahlik said the family gets by with a little help from God.

"God puts the right people there to help us out at the right time," she said.

But in the meantime, she has to watch her husband suffer.

"He's gotten so bad that I only get glimpses of the man he used to be," she said. "It's hard. It's just really hard."

 

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