Hanford dogs staying home

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Tri-City Herald

By Annette Cary

Hanford guard dogs are back in the comfort of their handlers' homes, after the price for a permanent kennel sent Fluor Hanford officials into sticker shock.

The estimated construction cost came in at almost $1.2 million, said Geoff Tyree, spokesman for Department of Energy contractor Fluor Hanford.

"Management decided they would rather spend that money on cleanup" of the nuclear reservation, he said.

The dogs had been staying at temporary kennels in central Hanford after a dispute between handlers and Fluor over the extra pay for caring for the dogs at home.




When Fluor required the handlers to begin leaving the dogs at Hanford each day after work rather than taking them home, the company agreed to build a kennel that met the specifications of military guard dog kennels.

Surprised by the price tag, Fluor did some checking and comparing and found the estimate was accurate, Tyree said.

The kennel was to have 4,650 square feet of enclosed space with a kennel for each dog, in addition to a wash station, an exam table and an isolation kennel in case a dog got sick.

Although for security reasons Hanford does not make public the number of guard dogs it has, nine dog handlers were involved in the earlier lawsuit over pay.

"One thing that drives up the cost is there are more requirements to build any facility at Hanford and more rigorous requirements," Tyree explained.

That includes an extensive and expensive permit process to deal with waste from the kennels, he said.

Abandoning plans for a permanent kennel came down to a business decision, he said.

But Fluor Hanford also recognized that the handlers and their families missed having the dogs at home, he said.

Under a new agreement, handlers will be paid a half-hour of salary each day to care for the dogs. In addition, handlers were required to sign a hold-harmless agreement before taking the dogs home.

In the past, Fluor said it was concerned about liability if the dogs caused any damage while off the nuclear site.

Where the dogs would live became an issue when nine handlers sued Fluor Hanford, a Department of Energy contractor, for back wages and overtime for their work to house, care for and train the dogs at home.

Fluor settled the suit for $131,000 last fall, admitting no fault. But the settlement left Fluor and Hanford Guard Union 21 to negotiate terms for caring for the dogs after Nov. 1.

Fluor chose, over the protests of handlers, to end the practice of sending the dogs home each night with handlers. The handlers said the dogs would maintain a better bond with them if they continued to be kept at home.

The canines lived in dog houses at the Hanford patrol operations center in central Hanford until last week when the agreement was renegotiated and plans for a kennel dropped.

Kennels had been built previously at handlers' homes and Fluor covers the costs of food, grooming and veterinary care. Hanford is the only DOE site to keep dogs owned by DOE at handlers' homes, according to Fluor.