Hanford cleanup will take longer, but is doable, thanks to pact

This editorial appears in the Yakima Herald-Republic on Aug. 19, 2009.

Last week marked what officials have proclaimed a significant agreement between Washington state and the Department of Energy in establishing new deadlines for cleaning up Hanford's most polluted sites.

"The timeline is aggressive and achievable," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu after touring the Hanford nuclear reservation last week.

The Hanford site, with its radioactive waste left over from the development of the atomic bomb during World War II, represents the largest environmental cleanup effort in the world. It's leaking radioactive storage tanks pose a continued threat to the nearby Columbia River.

However, don't expect a speedier turnaround in the cleanup process. In fact, many of the deadlines now will be pushed back several decades.

For instance, under the new agreement, Hanford's oldest tanks -- and the most likely to leak -- would be emptied of radioactive wastes by 2040. An earlier pact, which the federal Department of Energy argued it could not meet, would have required cleanup of the 149 tanks by 2018.

Also, waste would be treated for disposal by 2047 under the approved deadlines, as opposed to the present deadline of 2028.

"Granted, that is longer than we had hoped," Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire told the Tri-City Herald. "But it is reasonable and it is achievable."

The Department of Energy and the state have tried to settle differences ever since 2007 when Washington officials realized the federal agency had no chance of meeting earlier agreed-upon deadlines. What concerned the state was the lack of funding. Under the previous Bush administration's budget, only one radioactive tank could be cleaned per year -- a situation that would have pushed back the process into the next century.

But hopes for a settlement grew with the arrival of the Obama administration.

Thanks to federal stimulus money, nearly $2 billion will be available to help speed up the cleanup projects at Hanford. So far, the funds have saved nearly 300 Hanford jobs and created 1,424 more jobs.

We are encouraged by the agreement forged between the federal government and this state. We have long been troubled by the repeated delays in fashioning an achievable cleanup effort at Hanford.

The new settlement has two more features going for it. First, it extends a moratorium on shipping other radioactive waste from across the nation to Hanford.

Secondly, it would require a consent decree to be filed in federal court. That decree would require the court to approve any changes to the deadlines. Adding this stringent element makes this tentative agreement that much better, and superior to those in the past.

Years from now we hope Gregoire is right when she declared the announcement of this pact "a great day for Washington state, our neighboring state of Oregon, and the entire nation."

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Bob Crider, Spencer Hatton and Karen Troianello.