While it missed the start of the 2027 fiscal year, the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management is still working on appointing a new slate of members to the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB) for the Hanford Site in Richland, Wash.
“The membership package for DOE’s Hanford Advisory Board continues to make its way through the standard internal Department of Energy approval process and we look forward to scheduling the next meeting after the new year,” a DOE spokesperson said in reply to an Exchange Monitor email earlier this week.
“The HAB modernization will ensure the long-term strength of the HAB by ensuring there is equity among community members, greater stakeholder buy-in and engagement, and streamlined communications between the Tri Cities area, the State of Washington, and DOE,” the spokesperson went on to say.
DOE Environmental Management announced in August it would slash the size of HAB and directly appoint members from Washington, D.C., headquarters rather than having them nominated by various interest groups connected with the Hanford Site.
DOE previously expressed hope in getting the new advisory board in place by Oct. 1, when the new fiscal year started.
As part of this change, DOE has terminated an earlier memorandum of understanding with the U.S. EPA and the Washington state Department of Ecology, which is Hanford’s state regulator. The Office of Environmental Management has said the changes will make HAB an advisory panel for DOE alone, not the two other agencies.
“The Hanford Advisory Board was created to inform and involve stakeholders and the public more directly in Hanford Site cleanup decisions,” according to its website. “The collective advice of board members can influence the outcomes of cleanup and remediation by advising the Tri-Party Agreement (TPA) agencies [which are DOE, the state and EPA] on community and public perspectives and feedback.”
