Lawmakers wanted to make it easier for workers who got sick at the former nuclear site in central Washington to get workers' compensation.

Cascade PBS reporter, Lizz Giordano, looks at how the state ended up with a unique law.

It starts with the smell of ammonia.

A warning says former cleanup workers at the Hanford nuclear site near the Tri-Cities, that an underground tank of radioactive sludge has burped toxic chemicals up to the surface.

After more than 50 of these vapor releases, or burps, hit cleanup workers between 2014 and 2015, Washington sued the federal Department of Energy in 2015 and won stronger safety standards.

But for already sick workers, proving Hanford was the cause of their illness was nearly impossible then.

And workers' compensation claims were being denied again and again by the state and the DOE.

All these workers are getting their workers' comp claims denied as they waste away and die and lose their homes.

It's horrific, the impacts of not having medical treatment and workers' compensation when you can't work, and the Energy Department saying, "oh, we're not responsible."

So in 2018, Washington lawmakers passed a presumption law that flipped the burden of proof.

If you've worked at Hanford, in a place where you could have been exposed, and you have one of these diseases that have been strongly linked by evidence to work at Hanford, then you are automatically going to get your workers' compensation and your medical coverage.

Now, it would be up to the employers to prove something other than Hanford made a worker sick.

A DOE spokesperson said in a statement that the agency is committed to worker safety and follows all relevant laws.

I'm Lizz Giordano, Cascade PBS.

Next time, the federal government's response to the unique law that prompted an investigation by Cascade PBS and ProPublica.

I'm Paris Jackson.

Thanks for watching The Newsfeed.