Amendment Gives Oregon Hanford News

Sensitive information about radioactive waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in Washington would be made available to Oregon for the first time under an amendment the Senate approved Wednesday.

“The waste problem at Hanford has immediate and deadly ramifications for the people of Oregon,” Sen. Mark Hatfield, R-Ore., said.

“Under this amendment, Oregonians will at last be brought into the loop on Hanford cleanup,” he said.

Oregon, downstream from the Energy Department site along the Columbia River near Richland, would be granted the same rights as Washington state in reviewing and commenting on plans to clean up the waste.

However, Washington would retain the only decision-making authority among the two states under an agreement with the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency.

“There is no other site in the country that has affected the health and safety of residents in another state the way Hanford has affected the citizens of Oregon,” said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who co-sponsored the amendment with Hatfield.

“Hanford is generally considered to be the most contaminated site in the Western hemisphere,” he said.

Some 200 billion gallons of toxic and radioactive liquids from nuclear weapons production were dumped at the site dating to World War II, Wyden said.

The Senate unanimously agreed to include the amendment in a comprehensive measure authorizing defense programs.