Crowd Backs Wahluke Preservation Doe Proposes Turning Land Into Wildlife Refuge

An expanse of open land should remain just that, a Spokane crowd told federal officials on Thursday.

At issue is undeveloped portions of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation near Richland. The arid land was unplowed and undeveloped only because it provided a buffer for Hanford’s nuclear reactors.

About 90,000 acres known as the Wahluke Slope are managed by state and federal wildlife agencies. The Clinton administration proposes designating that land a wildlife refuge, to be permanently managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The proposal calls for more land designated for wildlife, plus large areas for industry, mining and grazing. Some of the land that would be designated for those activities is so contaminated with nuclear waste it likely will remain offlimits for generations.

Many of the 70 or so people who attended Thursday’s hearing called the Energy Department proposal inadequate. They want 175,000 acres - the vast majority of the nuclear reservation - set aside from any development, as proposed by tribes with treaty fishing rights on the Columbia River.

The 51 miles of the Columbia called Hanford Reach is the last spot on the river where salmon still spawn in substantial numbers. It pierces the nuclear reservation.

Protecting the land surrounding the river is the only way to assure the spawning beds remain undamaged, many of the speakers said.

“The Hanford Reach has good, productive (spawning) habitat and it must be preserved,” fisherman Harvey Morrison said. “I’ve learned to treasure this area not just for the fish, but for its natural beauty and other abundant wildlife.”

Federal officials said similar comments were the rule at hearings last month in Portland and Richland. But a crowd of mostly farmers and local politicians at a hearing near Hanford on Wednesday had a different idea.

All 20 speakers Wednesday in rural Mattawa, Wash., supported a proposal to develop much of the land as farms, resorts, campgrounds and industrial sites. A committee composed largely of residents from Grant, Franklin and Benton counties would make decisions for the best use of land released by the Energy Department.

That proposal, championed by Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, was panned repeatedly on Thursday.

“The whole Hanford Reach must remain in the hands of our federal government, not in the hands of farmers, ranchers, miners, or even the state,” said Frank Yuse of Spokane.

Added John Bentley of Post Falls: “The Coeur d’Alene (River) is one of the most abused watersheds you’ve ever seen, primarily due to local control.”

Only two speakers supported the local-control proposal.

Jim Pritchard warned that federal control could mean more restrictions on the use of the river. Besides, America needs more farmland, Pritchard said, “especially the way human population is growing.”

The Energy Department is scheduled to make a final decision in November.

FAST FACTS Watering place The name “Wahluke” stems from a Native American word meaning “watering place” or “watering hole,” according to the book “Place Names of Washington.” Until the 1940s, a community called Wahluke stood on the north bank of the Columbia River. Its residents were forced to move when the federal government created the Hanford Nuclear Reservation during World War II.