When the cleanup begins at the Atlas Mill tailings pile, there will be about 100 local workers who have a leg up on the competition for jobs at the site, thanks to a hazardous materials training program provided by the Teamsters Union through the state Department of Workforce Services.

    That training satisfies the basic Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requirements for employees working on a hazardous waste site. At the end of the course, trainees receive a Hazardous Waste Operations and Emergency Response Standard (HAZWOPER) certification, which needs to be updated annually. The Teamsters program also offers the annual refresher.

    About 90 percent have returned to maintain the certification, according to instructor Chuck Richardson. Current certification could be key this year, as the project seems to be moving forward. "They've put out a request for proposal, and they hope to name the contractor by late April or early May, then it's all budget‒how much money Congress gives them to do the job," Sheryl Nisely, DWS Employment Center manager, said.

    There's no telling how many jobs will be created locally, but prospects are better for a prepared workforce, Nisely said.

    "When this actually starts up out at Atlas, this is 40 hours of training the employer is not going to have to provide," Nisely said. "Our hope is that we've got a group of Grand or San Juan County people that can start day one without the employer having to spend 40 hours training. That's done, and they can move on to more advanced, site-specific training."

    Teamster instructor Chuck Richardson adds that this is a big component in the employer's decision-making process.

    "The company tends to feel like, "I'd better bring my people, or import people, so that I have a qualified workforce,'" he said. "By doing the training here, and getting people ready, when that project kicks off, the only training those people are going to require, under the OSHA standard, is 24 hours of site specific training.

    "If a major company comes into a community, especially if they're going to be here for three or four years, and they bring their own people, that devastates a community. It really does, because now you have this tremendous influx of people that your infrastructure may not be set up for. Do you try to build up your resources, which you pretty much have to by law, but then when the project is over, and the people dissipate, you're stuck with all this stuff that you can't fund now because you've lost part of your tax base."

    If this concern seems a little outside the purview of a safety instructor, it's consistent for Richardson. He always refers to safety in a larger context, from a human, worker's perspective instead of just a clinician's. He bristles a bit at a suggestion that this is a union perspective: "If somebody wants to join a union, that's great, but when we come and teach grant classes, we actually don't preach union, that's not the point. The point is to have a safe worker, a more competent worker."

That larger context includes management; Richardson says he encourages managers to attend his courses. He also emphasizes the idea of worker responsibility.

    "When they go to work for someone, they're safety conscious," he said. "They understand their rights; we're very careful to say what the law says. We try to instill in them a work ethic, and we remind them that you are the one that came to the employer, and you have to follow the employment rules, as long as they don't put you in jeopardy."

The course helps employees understand that jeopardy, and Richardson helps them understand how to deal with it.

    "We've had people in refreshers here who've been able to talk about positive changes they've made in their workplaces. We try to teach them, "don't go in and complain; offer a suggestion,'" he said. "If you come in complaining, after a while the response is, "oh no, here he comes again.' But if you come in with a viable suggestion, well, the safer a workplace we have the better off we all are. It costs the employer a lot of money when somebody gets hurt."

    Since it's difficult to turn a safe attitude on and off, and because injuries mean lost productivity and medical expense no matter where they occur, Richardson also stresses home safety.

    "You stand a greater chance of getting hurt at home than you do at work," he said. "At work somebody's watching over your back, or you have a fear of "I don't want to do something wrong because jobs are really hard to get.' But at home we out-think ourselves: "if they can do this on TV in 30 minutes, obviously I can do it.'"

    If all of the lessons really take in a student, Richardson says it shows.

    "When we do training classes, we can tell who's had some training and who hasn't," he said. "We can tell when they get into their car, we can tell when they climb into the mobile unit, by the way they get in and out, you can really see who's had some training and who hasn't."

    Nisely put a finer point on it: "Or who's going to be a worker's comp claim and who isn't."