Legislature(1999 - 2000)
05/06/1999 05:08 PM House WTR
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HOUSE SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON WORLD TRADE
AND STATE/FEDERAL RELATIONS
May 6, 1999
5:08 p.m.
MEMBERS PRESENT
Representative Ramona Barnes, Chair
Representative John Cowdery, Vice Chair
Representative Beverly Masek
Representative Joe Green
Representative Ethan Berkowitz
Representative Reggie Joule
MEMBERS ABSENT
Representative Gail Phillips
COMMITTEE CALENDAR
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 21
Relating to workers and family members of workers exposed to
radiation during the Amchitka nuclear tests.
- MOVED SJR 21 OUT OF COMMITTEE
(* First public hearing)
PREVIOUS ACTION
BILL: SJR 21
SHORT TITLE: AMCHITKA ISL NUCLEAR TEST SITE WORKERS
SPONSOR(S): LABOR & COMMERCE BY REQUEST
Jrn-Date Jrn-Page Action
4/09/99 847 (S) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S)
4/09/99 847 (S) L&C
4/20/99 Text (S) L&C AT 1:30 PM BELTZ 211
4/20/99 Text (S) MOVED CS OUT OF COMMITTEE
4/21/99 981 (S) L&C RPT 5DP
4/21/99 981 (S) DP: MACKIE, HOFFMAN, LEMAN, TIM KELLY
4/21/99 981 (S) DONLEY
4/21/99 981 (S) ZERO FISCAL NOTE (S.L&C)
4/22/99 Text (S) RLS AT 12:05 PM FAHRENKAMP 203
4/22/99 Text (S) MINUTE(RLS)
4/23/99 1063 (S) RULES TO CALENDAR 4/23/99
4/23/99 1068 (S) READ THE SECOND TIME
4/23/99 1068 (S) ADVANCED TO THIRD READING UNAN
CONSENT
4/23/99 1068 (S) READ THE THIRD TIME SJR 21
4/23/99 1068 (S) PASSED Y20 N-
4/23/99 1070 (S) TRANSMITTED TO (H)
4/26/99 974 (H) READ THE FIRST TIME - REFERRAL(S)
4/26/99 974 (H) WTR
5/06/99 Text (H) WTR AT 5:00 PM CAPITOL 124
WITNESS REGISTER
JEAN SMITH, Legislative Administrative Assistant
to Senator Jerry Mackie
Alaska State Legislature
Capitol Building, Room 427
Juneau, Alaska 99801
Telephone: (907) 465-3802
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified on SJR 21.
KEVIN DOUGHERTY, General Council
Alaska Laborers
2501 Commercial Drive
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
Telephone: (907) 276-1640
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified on SJR 21.
BEV ALECK, Member
Amchitka Technical Advisory Group [ATAG]
1220 East 112th Avenue
Anchorage, Alaska 99515
Telephone: (907) 344-8920
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of SJR 21.
SENATOR JERRY MACKIE
Alaska State Legislature
Capitol Building, Room 427
Juneau, Alaska 99801
Telephone: (907) 465-3802
POSITION STATEMENT: Asked Bev Aleck to speak about her personal
experience on this issue.
PAMELA MILLER, Program Director
Alaska Community Action on Toxics [ACAT]
135 Christensen Drive
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
Telephone: (907) 222-7714
POSITION STATEMENT: Testified in support of SJR 21.
ACTION NARRATIVE
TAPE 99-16, SIDE A
Number 0001
CHAIR RAMONA BARNES called the House Special Committee on World
Trade and State/Federal Relations meeting to order at 5:08 p.m.
Members present at the call to order were Representatives Barnes,
Cowdery, Masek, Berkowitz and Joule. Representative Green arrived
at 5:10 p.m. Representative Phillips was absent.
SJR 21-AMCHITKA ISL NUCLEAR TEST SITE WORKERS
CHAIR BARNES announced that the first order of business is Senate
Joint Resolution No. 21, Relating to workers and family members of
workers exposed to radiation during the Amchitka nuclear tests.
Number 0143
JEAN SMITH, Legislative Administrative Assistant to Senator Jerry
Mackie, came forward to provide information on SJR 21. She stated
that SJR 21 has been introduced on behalf of the Alaskan workers
and the family members of these workers exposed to radiation during
the Amchitka nuclear test. The Alaskan workers are just asking for
equal treatment that Atomic Energy Commission [AEC] workers based
of Amchitka Island received. These energy commission workers that
developed the radiation related cancer and their families received
medical care and death benefits without any questions asked. She
said this is the largest underground atomic explosion ever
conducted by the United States and everyone seems to be wondering
how Amchitka got left out because there were several sites and
thousands of other workers from test sites around the United States
that were included in the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
With SJR 21, the United States Congress is being asked that
Amchitka be included in the 1990 Radiation Exposure Act.
Number 0282
MS. SMITH stated that she became involved in this issue after
talking with the wife of one of the workers. She was frustrated at
the number of years it took to get anyone's attention on this
issue. She explained that when the woman's husband was sick she
was unable to get the classified records on him. Not only this
woman's husband, but hundreds of other workers should have been
informed so that they could have properly understood whether they
were in a high-risk category, whether their health effects were
from their Amchitka work, and if so, take some preventative
actions. She said it is a mystery why these people were not
included and it is also a tragedy that they have not been treated
equally.
KEVIN DOUGHERTY, General Council, Alaska Laborers, testified via
teleconference from Anchorage. He appreciates the interest and
concern for SJR 21. He stated there are two points that "come to
the surface here." The first point is the private sector Alaskan
workers on the Amchitka project certainly deserved to be treated
the same as the federal employees that worked on that project, but
they were not. The private sector employees were not given the
radiation badges like the federal employees were. He does not know
why they did it, but it was not fair. They were also not given the
health surveillance protection the federal employees enjoy under
their program.
MR. DOUGHERTY stated that Alaskans deserve to have equal coverage
under the 1990 Radiation Exposure Compensation Act as did the
federal employees. It is unclear why the Alaskans were left off
the list when they had the largest test which was about 300 times
the size of Hiroshima. There is no basis for that. He thinks
finally they are getting the federal government's attention on
this.
REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ asked Mr. Dougherty if he has brought suit
against the federal government.
MR. DOUGHERTY replied no. He said they are focusing on the health
of the workers rather than law suits. He stated that there may
well be law suits for the people who were affected. He said they
are very close to getting the federal government to commit to do a
health surveillance study.
REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ said he asked if he had brought suit
because he is a lawyer. He stated that if Mr. Dougherty had been
a doctor he would have asked about the medical care.
Number 0630
REPRESENTATIVE COWDERY asked how many people have been affected by
this.
MR. DOUGHERTY replied that there were approximately 1,500 people
who worked on the project. He stated that there were approximately
300 people who worked on the tunnel. He said the list they have
has over 100 people who have died or who currently have cancer. He
indicated that they have spoken with a doctor who says this is a
fairly high number for that type of population.
REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ asked what the numbers are.
CHAIR BARNES asked Mr. Dougherty to repeat the numbers.
MR. DOUGHERTY clarified that 1,500 people worked on Amchitka in all
of the phases. There were 300 people working on the tunnel and
those are the people that he really has contact with directly. Of
those 300 people, there are over 100 people, either spouses of the
deceased or people currently with cancer, have filled out forms.
He said part of the conclusion of this study is that everyone who
worked on the project will be surveyed.
Number 0788
REPRESENTATIVE COWDERY repeated for his clarification the numbers
of people involved to Mr. Dougherty. He asked if the claims came
from the tunnel workers or from everyone.
MR. DOUGHERTY stated that most of the claims have been from tunnel
workers. He said they have had other people involved in other
operations of the project also make claims.
REPRESENTATIVE GREEN asked if these claims are from both the
private sector and the federal government. He wondered if the
federal government workers are handled differently and if these
numbers are available.
MR. DOUGHERTY said the federal government employees were handled
quite differently. He indicated the 1,500 employees does not
include those federal government employees.
REPRESENTATIVE GREEN asked if the federal government employees were
compensated through the federal government.
MR. DOUGHERTY replied yes. He said there is a special Title 5
federal coverage for them.
Number 0915
REPRESENTATIVE GREEN asked if the federal government employees that
were compensated are satisfied. He wondered if there is any
litigation from them.
MR. DOUGHERTY does not know. He has not talked directly with any
of those employees. He stated that many of the federal employees
on the Amchitka project came from Nevada where the Department of
Energy headquarters was located. All of the highly qualified white
-collar federal employees came up for the project and then returned
to Nevada. As a result, there is not much contact with these
people.
BEV ALECK, Member, Amchitka Technical Advisory Group [ATAG],
testified next via teleconference from Anchorage. She stated that
the federal government employees were treated one way while the
Alaskan workers were treated as second-class citizens. She said
the model concept is that there are probably 1,500 workers which
are yet to be identified in the health surveillance study. They do
know who some of the workers are at this point, and have identified
over 300. One of the difficult tasks is going back through those
early years and determining who the workers were. She said this
part of the study will be very heavy concerning vital statistics
and other types of research.
Number 1125
SENATOR JERRY MACKIE, Alaska State Legislature, asked Ms. Aleck to
explain to the committee her personal involvement on this issue.
MS. ALECK stated that she and her husband, Nick Aleck, moved to
Alaska in 1970. Nick went to work out at Amchitka and worked there
during 1970 and 1971 when they were drilling Cannikin shaft and
cavity. She said he was an extremely healthy, outdoors person.
Four years later he was diagnosed with myelogenous leukemia, and
died within 13 months of diagnosis. They did not really learn
about radiation at Amchitka for many years. She stated that the
government and the contractors denied there was any radiation
present on the island, and they did not have access to any of the
information because it was all classified. After 1994, Hazel
O'Leary started opening the vaults and letting out many of the
classified documents. Since that time and since ATAG was formed in
1997, they have obtained over 30 boxes of classified and
unclassified documents that were never available before. She said
they have learned that there were all kinds of nuclear sources at
Amchitka. She said this is the information that Dr. Rosalie
Bertell, Ph.d., analyzed and conceded that the workers were exposed
to tens of rems of radiation.
SENATOR MACKIE stated that he appreciates all the work Ms. Aleck
has done to try to bring light to this issue so that other families
have access to the type of information she has been working hard
for many years to obtain. He said it is really her effort that SJR
21 is before the committee today.
Number 1352
PAMELA MILLER, Program Director, Alaska Community Action on Toxics,
testified next via teleconference from Anchorage. She read the
following testimony:
As a member of the Amchitka Technical Advisory Group, I'm
familiar with the (indisc.) difficulties the workers and
their families have had in finding the truth about
radiation hazards at Amchitka in the years during and
following the nuclear test. And I've personally received
many calls from Amchitka workers and family members who
expressed concerns about the high incidence of cancers
and other health problems that arose among the workers
after their employment on the island, and I've reviewed
over 20,000 documents in my research concerning the
nuclear test at Amchitka and have found documentation of
radioactive sources and leakage that workers were likely
exposed to. The Department of Energy still withholds
classified documents which would provide additional and
much needed information for assessing environmental and
human health threats. A worker medical surveillance
program will provide workers and their families with the
information that is essential to understanding the health
impacts of the nuclear test at Amchitka. I also voice my
support for the amendment to the Radiation Exposure
Compensation Act of 1990 that will include Amchitka
Island within its coverage. Finally, I ask that members
of the legislature work diligently to resolve worker
compensation claims and litigation relating to Amchitka
workers and their families. This resolution provides a
measure of justice that is long overdue to the workers
and their families.
REPRESENTATIVE MASEK made a motion to move SJR 21 with individual
recommendations and a zero fiscal note and asked unanimous consent.
There being no objections, it was so ordered.
Number 1505
REPRESENTATIVE BERKOWITZ stated that this is the sort of terrible
thing that happens when the government runs around unchecked. He
said he asked the questions about law suits for a particular
reason. He explained, "We're contemplating a bill in this body
about public interest law suits, and the type of suit that would be
used to help ... these kind of wrongs from being visited in the
future would be a public interest suit."
CHAIR BARNES adjourned the House Special Committee on World Trade
and State and Federal Relations at 5:29 p.m.
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