Eligibility status may take year

Blockson Chemical: Weller reports on compensation plan

JOLIET — Workers at the former Blockson Chemical Co. south of town learned Monday it could take at least a year before they even find out if they are eligible for federal compensation because they worked unprotected with uranium for weapons manufacturing during the Cold War.

   U.S. House and Senate negotiators last week approved a $1 billion compensation package that would award such workers a $150,000 lump sum and medical benefits for ills incurred because of the uranium work. Families of deceased workers could be eligible for the $150,000 alone.

   U.S. Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Morris, said Monday the agreement was a bipartisan effort, so passage in the House and Senate this week shouldn't be a problem. Nor should it be a problem that the president must sign the bill.

   But Weller told a group of 50 or so former Blockson workers or survivors of deceased workers that the president has until March to propose how the benefits will be distributed. The president then will have until July to put his plan before Congress, or the minimum $150,000 lump sum and the medical benefits will automatically go into place.

   Gathered in front of the still-locked gates of the plant, bought by Olin Corp. in 1955, those in the crowd wondered if the cancers they suffer or the ills that killed their relatives had anything to do with the long years of service at the 1,000-acre plant, pretty much shut down in 1991, near Brandon and Patterson roads.

Workers covered

   Weller explained that the bill will cover those Blockson/Olin workers who helped process uranium under a secret government contract from 1952 to 1962. He has asked U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson to notify those workers and their families of the compensation.

   He said they don't have an answer yet about employees who worked in the building after the government contract was over, however.

   But a U.S. Department of Energy spokeswoman said last week she believed the compromise as it stands will cover only the workers in the uranium processing unit, called Building 55, during the 10 years of the contract for the government. Those who worked in there after the contract would not be covered.

   Employees at Blockson/Olin extracted nearly 2 million pounds of uranium for government weapons manufacturing during those 10 years. A 1977 study by the Department of Energy found that there were still higher than normal levels of uranium at the building, but not high enough to be considered dangerous in the short term, according to the Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety.

   Olin knocked down Building 55 in 1997, but company spokesman Curt Richards said a thorough test was done beforehand. The debris also was placed in a secure landfill. The Illinois Department of Nuclear Safety still is trying to get confirmation of those tests in 1997.

   Olin, which will have to maintain a surface water treatment facility on the site forever, is trying to sell the rest of the 1,000 acres.

Locals affected

   Meanwhile, Martha Schoffstoll of Joliet believes her husband, Charles, may have been exposed to the uranium during parts of his 10 years with the company during the Cold War years. He died in 1988 from lung cancer.

   She remembers her husband talking about getting the FBI clearance that would allow him to work with the uranium in the secure building. Even friends and neighbors got calls from the FBI to check up on him, she said.

   Chris and Tom Charley know their father, Robert, worked in Building 55, as well, during part of his 35 years with the company. He, too, died of cancer. Schoffstoll and the Charleys, like others, are gathering documentation for when the compensation is available.

   They are among the more than 30 people who contacted The Herald News after reading stories about the compensation proposal.

   Linda Santerelli of Braidwood feels so far as though she might be shut out. Her father, Barney Hood, worked at Blockson/Olin starting in 1970. He was a foreman who had access to all buildings, including, she believes, Building 55. He developed asthma and, later, lung cancer, before a heart attack killed him in 1992.

   The legislation, at the direction of Richardson, is designed to give workers at Blockson, and some 200 others across the country, the benefit of the doubt.

   But Santerelli, who worked at Blockson/Olin herself for a while, is left wondering, like others, whether the many chemicals, asbestos or leftover uranium was the culprit.

   The Department of Energy said affected workers or their families can call a hot line at the DOE's Worker Advocacy Office to find out if they might be eligible for the pending compensation.

   The toll-free number is (877) 447-9756. Callers will hear a recorded message asking them to leave information and that a representative will get back to them within two business days.

   The compensation package also would affect workers at the University of Chicago and later, Argonne National Laboratory, who were exposed to the dangerous metal beryllium during wartime weapons studies and the former William Pratt Co., where uranium rods for nuclear fuel were ground for a few years in the 1940s at the now-closed plant at Cass and Henderson.