Members of a community stakeholder group met on Aug. 18 with the consulting team who will lead the first Risk and Safety Assessment of the state’s Public Health Laboratory in Shoreline.
“Our plan is to keep this as transparent as possible,” Scott Dwyer, program manager at Kleinfelder said. “If there is an inventory and we can let you know what’s maintained on site we’re going to do that.”
The group of citizens, first responders and city and school employees began meeting in May at the Public Health Laboratory to help guide a Risk and Safety Assessment of the Lab to identify any risks to the safety of the surrounding community. The assessment occurs at a time when the laboratory is working on a master plan for the next 20 years and on firming up plans to build an approximately 10,000 square foot expansion to include extra storage and lab space.
The Kleinfelder team will work to identify potential risks in the lab and provide countermeasures in a report that will be made available for public review in a draft form in mid-October before a final report is submitted to the Department of Health in early December.
“We look at what is the safety culture in an organization,” Jonathon Richmond, a subcontractor to the Kleinfelder organization said. “What is the attitude of the employees, what is the attitude of management and is there a policy that basically says we want to know when there’s been a hiccup … when an accident has occurred and there’s no retribution against you because what we want to do is maintain an absolutely safe work environment?”
The team will look at architectural plans for the lab, review standard operating procedures and occupational health management plans as part of the overall assessment.
“To some extent we’ll probably be interviewing personnel here,” Dwyer said.
Stakeholder group members shared their expectations with the consultants.
“I’m looking for an objective report that lays it on the line,” Dick Nicholson said.
The group will meet on Sept. 26 from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. for a mid-point meeting with the Kleinfelder Team. A community meeting about the Risk and Safety Assessment is scheduled for Nov. 6. Stakeholder meetings are held at the Public Health Laboratory, 1610 NE 150th St. in Shoreline and are open to the public.
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