We Need Action Not Paper Shuffling

When the Hanford Nuclear Reservation shut down the last of its nuclear weapons production facilities, some hoped that its gifted scientists and engineers could become an asset - globe-trotting experts in cleaning up environmental contamination.

After all, Hanford’s old bomb plants present some of the toughest cleanup challenges in the world: Contaminated soil, groundwater and factories. Complex brews of explosive chemicals, mixed with radioactive waste in leaky underground tanks.

When Hanford’s engineers develop and prove solutions to these problems, they’ll be in demand around the world, not only at nuclear installations but at countless chemical plants.

Unfortunately, Hanford has not made it very far into the problem-solving stage. After 10 years and billions of dollars in expenditures, it’s still stuck in the paper-shuffling stage - churning out studies, contracts, public relations and litigation.

The lawyers, the bureacrats and the contractors have cleaned up, but the environment hasn’t.

On Monday, Washington state officials announced that they are tired of waiting. Their solution? They sent the federal government a letter, announcing more litigation. Ninety days from now state government will sue federal government. After a few years of additional paper shuffling, perhaps a judge will order the federal government to clean up Hanford. Then, the federal government could appeal.

In the world that paper shufflers inhabit, the lawsuit threat is considered perhaps to be “a major motivator.”

Maybe. On the other hand, bureaucrats, lawyers, politicians and contractors receive their handsome salaries regardless of whether any actual cleanup occurs. If a federal bureaucracy is ordered to pay a fine to a state bureaucracy, who does that penalize other than the taxpayers?

Yes, the lawsuit is warranted. The federal government broke a promise to complete certain cleanup chores by a particular date, and that cannot be tolerated.

But the lawsuit is not a solution, just as studies and public relations are not a solution.

This is a management problem, a political problem, a leadership problem. The executive branch of federal government should need no court order to shoulder its obligation to clean up Hanford.

And yet, even if the executive branch ordered the engineers to begin actual cleanup work tomorrow, the next step might well be the announcement of some lawsuit to block the plan as risky or inadequate. Our government and society excel at argumentation, regulation and litigation. What we lack is the courage to make and implement tough decisions.