The crisis at Hanford

By Paige Knight, Hanford Watch, April 7, 2004

In light of the recent Hanford "State of the Site" public meetings, as well as the positive accomplishments and problems we face in cleaning up Hanford, I would like to share my observations and  concerns.

Last week the Hanford Advisory Board (HAB) met with a full agenda concerning the  federal budget for Hanford cleanup, worker pension and safety issues, ground  water cleanup actions, update on the Solid Waste EIS (environmental impact statement) and more.

I believe we are facing the worst crisis at Hanford and across the weapons complex that we have faced in my 12 years of involvement. We have a crisis in cleanup "philosophy" or attitudes of this administration. Department of Energy Headquarters (DOE HQ) in D.C. has taken control of management to the point that management at the Hanford site seems to have lost all of its power.

The Tri-Party Agreement (TPA), a legally binding roadmap to cleanup, and the environmental laws that govern the cleanup of lethal and long-lasting wastes are being "held hostage" by DOE HQ. The administration's current attempts to reclassify waste, and hold back cleanup dollars until the courts give a "satisfactory" answer is typical in our new "Age of Secrecy." This in turn impacts the cleanup budget.

Even more important, many of the new initiatives impact the health and safety of this region now and for future generations. The buzzword for the new philosophy is "acceleration." Faster, cheaper. At the annual State of the Site meetings held around the region, citizens demanded quality cleanup, long- lasting cleanup, honesty, reality. Are we getting that?

Morale among management and workers is at a all-time low. Management is being  questioned among the public and regulators by Headquarters, the very  same senior administrators that seem to be deflocking the Hanford Site  management.

Workers at the K-basins, 400 yards from the Columbia River, have had frequent accidents recently - even fist fights - and are behind schedule in  getting the highly radioactive sludge out of the big pools. Some of the talk I  have heard in town and from workers is that the contractor, Fleur, is hiring cheaper labor without the proper training to do the job so  that the contractor can make more money by completing the projects in less time, thus reaping bigger bonuses. Sound like Enron?

DOE is also in the process of changing current new requests for proposals for cleanup work that potentially undermine worker pension and wage savings and medical benefits after the first five years of the contracts in an effort to produce "savings." The current Hanford Employees Welfare Trust Plan struggles to correct abuses by employers in the past. The plan to erode the current pension plan would more than likely create a drain of qualified and experienced workers in the various projects, reducing effective work planning, creating a more transient, less trained workforce, thus adversely affecting safety and medical monitoring for the hazardous jobs of Hanford employees.

The citizens of the Northwest have spent the past year and a half commenting on the Hanford Solid Waste EIS and, after sending the original draft back to headquarters, have received the final EIS. This whole EIS process has been flawed from the beginning. HAB recognized in reading through the final document that there are numerous new analyses and conclusions, including treating groundwater as "irretrievably and irreversibly" contaminated, thus no need for cleaning up the groundwater. Because of new information in this final EIS we must have time before a Record of Decision is issued for public review and comment. This is something the public, you, need to demand.

As for the Hanford budget, another trend we have seen over the past two and more years is that DOE HQ is using budget to drive TPA changes, and has, of its own accord, adopted cleanup strategies and goals that don't agree with the TPA. The public has been given no real budget information, nor input into the TPA baseline changes for the past three years. Many projects governed by the TPA have been changed without the public process guaranteed by the TPA.

I am also seeing worrisome signs in the Office of River Protection program that deals with tanks and tank waste and building a vitrification plant (WTP--Waste Treatment Plant). With the help of whistleblowers, I've learned that DOE is attempting in many ways to circumvent the laws that govern planning for cleanup actions that may affect the environment. We see this in tank closure plans, in selection of alternative waste treatments that are to replace a great portion of the work of the WTP, making one wonder why we are spending nearly $7 billion on the plant. None of the alternative technologies have been proven, there is no data on their viability, yet we will be asked in September to comment on them.

DOE is currently attempting through the court system and through Congress to redefine the "lethality" of wastes, so that "cleanup" will occur faster and cheaper. In all of these actions human health and environmental impacts are being disregarded and relegated to the values of corporations and an administration that stands to gain monetary and political value from their actions ... at our expense.

DOE is discussing and trying to push forward "Risk-Based End States" at Hanford and across the complex. How clean is clean? They are assuming no full-time residences or consumptive use of groundwater. Who is going to be around in the next 100 years to stop people who have little knowledge of the history of the site? The government thinks that it will remain in control of the land forever, but according to studies, the longest these institutional controls survive is two years. There is mention of putting "caps" on many of the burial grounds and tank farms to prevent water in the next many years from carrying waste to the groundwater and thus to the Columbia River. In the central plateau of Hanford, better known as the 200 area, the tank farms with their 177 tanks will be capped and more waste from around the country brought in for permanent burial. These are just a few of the "visions for cleanup" being brought to you by this administration.

In my view, this is an administration that has little regard for human life, for the values of the people of the different regions of our country, for anything "below" the financial and political profit of the few, the elites.

I call on all of you who read this to begin defending our life on this land in the Northwest, and defending the workers at Hanford who are risking their health and lives and families for us in this toxic mess.

 This is a time to be alert, focused, and outraged. It is a time to come forward and demand more than this meager vision we are having forced upon us. I hope this will start a dialogue from among our readers. I invite you to join in, with thoughtful and heartfelt discussion.

Paige Knight, President HANFORD WATCH