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Hanford Watch needs your help
Hanford Watch 4549 NE 39th Ave. Portland, Oregon 97221
March 6, 2003 Dear Friends of Hanford Watch, Since 1992, Hanford Watch has been active in bringing insight and concerted action to bear on the U.S. Department of Energy’s mismanagement of the Hanford area. The Bush Administration is wreaking havoc on environmental progress that has been hard-fought and won over the past three decades.
Since the election two years ago, the Department of Energy has issued a new plan (the fifth in 10 years) for a “cleanup” of the nuclear weapons sites. It proposes to reduce cleanup standards, putting an invisible fence around Hanford’s 53 million gallons of waste that are still sitting in, and corroding, the 177 underground tanks. Meanwhile the waste which has already leaked from the tanks continues to work its way through the ground moving toward the Columbia River. This will in effect create a dead-zone in years to come -- a zone of contaminated or dead salmon, drinking water and irrigation water for our crops. It is also a risk to hundreds of thousands of recreational users and communities that depend on the river for their livelihood.
The Administration refuses to take seriously the tribal and public demands for unrestricted cleanup standards, thus insuring a contaminated legacy of water and land for future generations. Contractors are offered huge bonus “incentives” to do the work they have already been hired to complete. The public has been kept in limbo over the budget for cleaning up Hanford since the beginning of President Bush’s reign.
Hanford Watch continues to work to encourage dialogue and actions that will move us all toward a safe, carefully budgeted, absolutely complete, environmental cleanup at Hanford. For the past 10 years as an all-volunteer organization, we have been helping to educate Oregonians about Hanford and encouraging involvement in cleanup decisions. We continue to bring these issues to the public through the citizen advisory boards on which we hold a seat and through the many public meetings we help to organize.
In 2002, Hanford Watch helped to insure large public turnouts to stop the Department of Energy’s plans to ship waste from other sites around the country to Hanford for “temporary” storage. This plan drew the ire of hundreds of Northwest citizens who want no more waste imported while Hanford does not yet have a waste treatment plant.
A highlight of our work last year with other organizations and agencies is the construction of an exhibit, “Hanford at the Half Life,” at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI) in Portland. An opening reception was held bringing businesses, congressional delegates and more of the public together so that we can continue to push for progress in cleaning up the most contaminated site in the Western Hemisphere. With the contributions from supporters like yourselves, we have been able to pay a long-time Hanford supporter to update and maintain our website and the email list through which we dialogue and communicate with the public. We continue to keep our congressional delegates informed of Hanford issues that need their support such as adequate funding for cleanup and keeping the pressure on the Department of Energy, Washington Department of Ecology, and the Environmental Protection Agency to make progress in cleanup to protect our region. Your donations to Hanford Watch will provide:
Won’t you please contribute to Hanford Watch and help us continue to be an even stronger voice in the Pacific Northwest for a cost-conscious, efficient, rapid, total cleanup of Hanford! Please subscribe to our email list, so we can keep you informed about Hanford news. Thank you!
Paige Knight President of Hanford Watch P.S. Your donation is tax deductible to the full extent of the law. Hanford Watch continues the struggle and with your help, we will be stronger than ever before. President Bush can only continue his destruction of the environment if we remain silent. |