During its annual conference Thursday in Washington, D.C., the Energy Communities Alliance remembered Yakama Nation elder Russell Jim as a longtime advocate for cleanup of the Hanford Site in Washington state.
Jim, 82, died on April 7, according to newspaper reports from Washington state.
In his opening remark at ECA, Roane County, Tenn., County Executive Ron Woody said Jim had spent decades ensuring tribal interests had a voice in the environmental remediation of Cold War waste at Hanford. Woody led the ECA gathering in a moment of silence.
The Yakama Nation is located in southeastern Washington state. The 82-year-old Jim headed the Yakama Nation’s Environmental Restoration and Waste Management Program for nearly four decades before retiring last year, the Yakima Herald reported.
The Washington state Department of Ecology, in an April 9 tweet, called Jim “a passionate advocate for a thorough and effective Hanford cleanup.”
