Associated Press
August 12, 2002

Judge awards $1.47 million to Dugway whistleblower

By DEBBIE HUMMEL
Associated Press Writer

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) _ A judge has ruled that Dugway Proving Ground
should pay more than $1.47 million in damages to a former employee who
reported safety problems at the chemical-biological warfare research
facility.

David W. Hall filed a whistleblower case against the Army in
February 1997, four months before he retired out of what he says was
fear of being fired.

Hall joined Dugway in 1986 to work in the facility's chemical
laboratory. Dugway, an 800,000-acre military testing facility in the
desert 60 miles southwest of Salt Lake City, researches defensive
measures, detection and decontamination equipment and cleanup methods
for chemical weapons.

Almost immediately after he was hired at Dugway, Hall began raising
concerns about environmental and worker safety, the ruling states.

Among them:

• Dugway was storing waste too close together, creating a potential
  fire or explosive hazard.
  
• The toxic and hazardous chemicals were dumped down the Dugway
  Chemical Laboratory drain.
  
• Chemical warfare gas masks at the depot were defective.
  
• Two areas at Dugway were contaminated with chemicals.

Hall claims that one Dugway commander called him a "traitor" for
revealing problems to officials outside the military. Dugway also
required him to undergo additional background checks, suspended his
security clearance, attempted to lower his employee performance marks
and ordered him to undergo mental-health examinations.

U.S. Labor Department administrative law judge David Di Nardi's
Thursday ruling describes Hall as "a dedicated, conscientious and highly
motivated public citizen."

"I find ... that (Dugway) has clearly, continuously and illegally
discriminated against (Hall) through harassment, disciplinary procedures
and outright threats," Di Nardi wrote in his decision.

Judge Di Nardi's decision is considered a recommendation and must be
affirmed by the secretary of the Labor Department.

Depot officials were disappointed in the ruling and would appeal to
the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, said Dugway
spokeswoman Paula Nicholson in an e-mailed statement.

But Hall's attorney, Mick Harrison, said the award sends a message
to employers not to retaliate against employees who raise environmental
and safety concerns.

Harrison said the case was precedent setting due in part to the size
of the award, but also in that it holds that the army must comply with
Department of Labor rules in the same way other employers must.

"I think it's a very encouraging sign ... I think that we
(employees) are the first line of defense. The whistleblowers are meant
to provide an additional deterrent to this kind of corruption," Hall
said from his Sugarhouse home on Monday.

"I feel very good because Dugway's post hearing case was filled with
horrible allegations, it was just a nightmare of character
assassination," Hall said.

In addition to the more than $1.47 million in monetary damages,
Judge Di Nardi also recommended that Dugway post a written note "in a
centrally located area" at Dugway for 60 days saying that the
disciplinary action against Hall has been expunged from his personnel
record, and that complaints have been decided in his favor.