The Washington state Department of Ecology will hold an online public hearing Jan. 21 on proposed modifications to certain facilities at the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site.
The DOE and contractor Washington River Protection Solutions seek a class 2 modification to allow expansion of loading areas at the Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and the 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility.
According to an Ecology summary, DOE and the contractor want to expand the footprint of the building, remove a couple of abandoned tanks and rework a concrete floor to allow unloading of large tankers. The plan also recommends designing and developing a backup load-in station that could be sued when the facility is out of service.
The Liquid Effluent Retention Facility and the 200 Area Effluent Treatment Facility are both mixed-waste treatment and storage units for handling effluents from ongoing operations at Hanford. The projects include the 242-A Evaporator and the Effluent Management Facility that will soon come online for the Waste Treatment Plant. The Waste Treatment Plant is scheduled to start converting low-activity waste into a glass-like substance by the end of 2023.
The public hearing is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time on Jan. 21. A link to the meeting can be found here. A public comment period started Dec. 15 and runs until Feb. 13. After the close of the comment period, Ecology will make a final decision on the modification.
