Firms dispute blame in trial

This story was published Wed, Oct 29, 2003

By Mary Hopkin
Herald Valley bureau

PORTLAND -- "It was Raytheon's responsibility."

That was the phrase defense witnesses repeated Tuesday when asked why the Army didn't respond with medical support on Sept. 15, 1999, when 34 construction workers simultaneously became ill while building the Army's incinerator plant at the Umatilla Chemical Depot.

Raytheon, the construction contractor, already has settled out of court with the nearly two dozen plaintiffs for an undisclosed amount.

But James McCandlish, the plaintiffs' Portland attorney, doesn't believe the responsibility can be placed only on Raytheon, now known as Washington Demilitarization Co.

The incident occurred during construction of an incinerator plant to destroy 7.4 million pounds of nerve and mustard agents stored at the depot.

The workers believe it was those deadly agents that caused their lungs to burn, their noses to run and left an acidic bile in their mouths.

On Tuesday, Lt. Col. Tim Mallon, an Army doctor, repeatedly said Raytheon was responsible for evacuating its employees; personnel at the Umatilla Chemical Depot weren't required to respond to the incident.

Mallon, chief of the Army's Madigan Medical Center in Tacoma, also is at the top of the chain of command for the Army's medical personnel at the depot medical clinic.

On Monday, Maj. Jose Ortiz testified that, in a hypothetical situation where 100 workers simultaneously became ill, his first response would be to call the depot Emergency Operations Center to find out whether a leak had been reported or could be verified.

When Mallon was asked about the same situation, his responses were similar.

"My first responsibility is to call the EOC and verify there has been an event, and what the details are," he said.

Mallon said it would be a "tiered" response, starting at the EOC, where the commander would determine if chemical agents were involved and would tell medical personnel and others where to go and what to do.

"What I'm hearing is the EOC is finding out what's happening ... before directing any medical people to look at these people," said U.S. District Court Judge Dennis Hubel, who is hearing the case.

Mallon said the EOC must look at the "big picture" to find out if there is an incident and if there are possible casualties elsewhere.

"The picture I get from the testimony is medical people are essentially, and this could be too strong a word, held hostage until the EOC says to go," Hubel said.

"So do these 100 men lay on the ground waiting for the EOC to declare (a chemical event), or does someone respond, and who?" Hubel asked.

"I can't respond," Mallon said. "I think if 100 men were reported, there would be a (chemical event) declared and the initial response team would go in."

McCandlish asked the Army doctor if he agreed the event "identified a host of issues and unforeseen problems" with the Army's emergency preparedness plan at the depot, which led to workers not being decontaminated and delayed their transport to the hospital by more than two hours.

Henry Miller, Department of Justice attorney, objected to the question and asked McCandlish to rephrase it, but he simply said he was done with the witness.

 

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