Unidentified Cause of Worker Irritation at Craig Station

Officials of Tri-State Generation and Transmission still don’t know what caused symptoms that sent a total of 19 contract workers to the hospital on Friday night. Those affected were among 600 workers who are engaged in a six-week outage to upgrade boiler, turbine-generator, and scrubber systems of northwest Colorado’s Craig Station Unit 3.

Communication Manager Jim VanSomeren told POWERnews that around midnight on Friday seven workers complained of coughing, burning eyes, and nausea. They were taken by ambulance to the Craig hospital. Later, 12 additional workers with similar symptoms were driven to the hospital in private vehicles. None were admitted, and all had been treated and released by noon on Saturday.

Though original suspicion was directed at acetylene from a welder’s torch, VanSomeren said that extensive testing and attempts to recreate the conditions have so far not resulted in identifying a conclusive cause. As of yesterday, upgrade work had resumed.

Sources: POWERnews, cbs4denver.com