DOE fights in court to add to Hanford's waste
Tuesday, May 30, 2006 7:55 AM PDT
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E-mail this articleThe federal government continues to insist that it has the authority to turn the Hanford nuclear reservation into a toxic waste dump, and it's spending considerable amounts of time and money to establish that authority.
The U.S. Department of Energy first argued its case unsuccessfully more than year ago before U.S. District Court Judge Alan McDonald, who barred the shipment of low-level radioactive waste to Hanford unless it meets strict storage requirements set by the state. Last week, DOE attorneys were back in McDonald's Yakima court, seeking to overturn a voter-approved initiative that prohibits shipment of any radioactive waste to Hanford until all existing waste has been cleaned up.
McDonald said he expects to issue his ruling within three weeks. However he decides this case, the government's ongoing effort to assert a federal right to bring more radioactive waste to Hanford sends a discouraging message about its intentions with regard to cleaning up the site.
Already, too many tax dollars have been wasted in litigation -- dollars that ought to have been applied to the cleanup. Indeed, even as the government mounted its legal effort to repeal the state initiative, it was reducing the current fiscal year's cleanup budget. Moreover, the White House budget plan for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 reduces funding for tank waste removal by some $52 million.
The federal government, in fact, has given Washingtonians ample reason to suspect its commitment to cleaning up Hanford -- reason enough for 69 percent of state voters to approve the 2004 initiative barring shipment of additional waste to the south-central Washington site until all existing waste had been eliminated.
Time and again, the government has failed to live up to the Tri-Party Agreement signed in 1989 by the DOE, federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state of Washington. It's missed one cleanup deadline after another, setting the project back years.
The years of delay, mismanagement and budget reductions are hard to excuse. Hanford is the most contaminated nuclear site in the nation. The 586-square-mile reservation contains roughly two-thirds of the country's high-level nuclear waste.
Before Judge McDonald halted the shipment of low-level radioactive waste to the site, the government had dumped about 37,000 drums and 1,200 boxes of contaminated clothing, equipment and rags at Hanford. With the cleanup already years behind schedule, it's almost inconceivable that the government would be in court seeking to add to this toxic waste.
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