The entire Washington state congressional delegation on Monday urged President-elect Donald Trump to make environmental cleanup, worker health, and the safety of nearby communities at the Hanford Site a priority in his administration.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) organized the letter sent to Trump, which was also signed by Sen. Patty Murray (D) and the state’s four Republican and six Democrat U.S. representatives. The lawmakers said they looked forward to discussing Hanford issues in more detail with Trump and his administration in the coming days and moths.
The letter provided background information to explain the cleanup of the site and its importance, and also emphasized worker safety. “This is the largest and most complex environmental remediation project in the nation and is critical to ensuring the safety and well-being of those who live both in the Tri-Cities and downstream of Hanford along the Columbia River,” the lawmakers said. “Furthermore, the federal government is subject to legally enforceable milestones on tank waste retrieval and treatment through a Consent Decree between the State of Washington and DOE.”
Strong and predictable funding is crucial to fulfilling the federal government’s legal and moral obligation for Hanford cleanup, the letter says. Strong funding also allows progress in remediation and “ensures our top priority – worker safety – is achieved while these dangerous cleanup operations take place,” it adds. “It is essential that the safety of the more than 9,000 workers comes first as they are doing a remarkable job and their efforts keep surrounding communities safe.”
Hanford Interests Represented on House Appropriations Panel
Hanford Site interests are well represented on the House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee, the starting point for funding legislation for Energy Department programs, including environmental cleanup.
Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.) announced Republican appointments to panel’s subcommittees this week, including adding the representative whose congressional district covers Hanford, Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), to energy and water. Newhouse is the second congressional representative on the subcommittee from Washington state. He joins Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), who represents communities along the Columbia River downstream from Hanford and who has supported environmental cleanup there.
The subcommittee remains chaired by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho), whose district includes the Department of Energy Idaho Cleanup Site. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), whose district includes the DOE Oak Ridge Site, also remains on the committee. Other GOP members are Reps. Ken Calvert of California, Jeff Fortenberry of Nebraska, Kay Granger of Texas, and David Joyce of Ohio.
The subcommittees Democratic members had not been named as of deadline Friday.
Hanford Tank AY-102 Waste Levels Continue to Drop
Roughly 26,000 gallons of waste remains to be extracted from Tank AY-102 at the Hanford Site in Washington state, the Department of Energy’s waste contractor for the former plutonium production facility said Friday.
Washington River Protection Solutions on March 3, 2016, began retrieving the estimated 800,000 gallons of liquid and sludge from the double-shell tank, where waste is leaking into the space between the two hulls. Progress since then has been halting at times as workers dealt with various challenges, including the amount of waste accumulutating in the annulus, the space between the two tank shells. The deadline to complete retrieval is March 4 of this year.
Winter weather has also been a hindrance in recent weeks, WRPS President Mark Lindholm said in a Friday update on Tank AY-102 and the overall issue of vapors from the waste containers.
Following the Christmas holiday, “Operations resumed on Dec. 29 and sluicing was performed continuously for 30 hours until it was shut down early on Dec. 31 for air bottle delivery. Retrieval resumed that afternoon before being shut down due to elevated ammonia readings from the AP Farm ventilation exhaust stack,” Lindholm wrote. “Fluctuating ammonia levels prevented operations on Jan. 1 and excessive snowfall caused the cancelation of retrieval operations on Jan. 2. Since then, sluice pit temperatures have dropped below our required threshold for operating the system.”
Tank AY-102 still contains about 10 percent of the amount of sludge waste it held at the beginning of operations, according to Lindholm.
