Community ready for talks on future of Hanford lands

Herald editorial staff; Sivula Chris444 words26 March 2010Tri-City HeraldTRICA8English(c) 2010 The Tri-City Herald. All Rights Reserved.

Community leaders are right to push for more say in Hanford’s future, and they need to keep up the pressure.
Planning for life after cleanup needs to be a partnership between the Tri-Cities and the Department of Energy.
In a recent letter to Ines Triay, DOE assistant secretary for environmental management, Tri-City political leaders and economic development officials turned up the heat.
Forging a common vision doesn’t seem out of reach, but the process could benefit from a greater sense of urgency.

The federal presence at Hanford will continue for decades, perhaps longer, but the multibillion-dollar budgets for cleanup won’t.
DOE plans to finish most cleanup along the Columbia River by 2015, shrinking the active footprint of the site to 75 square miles at its center.
The economic future of the Mid-Columbia depends largely on what happens to the rest of the 586-square-mile nuclear reservation. The community ought to be involved in making land use decisions.
That’s not happening, according to the letter that local leaders sent to Triay.
“Over the past several years the Tri-City community has grown increasingly concerned that decisions are being made about the long-term disposition of the Hanford site without adequate input from those most directly impacted — the local community leaders,” the letter said.
The president of the Tri-City Development Council; the mayors of the three Tri-Cities and West Richland; the executive directors of the ports of Pasco, Kennewick and Benton; the chairman of Hanford Communities; and the chairmen of the Benton and Franklin county commissions all signed the document.
There are signs that the problem can fixed. In January, DOE officials offered some reassuring remarks and a challenge at TRIDEC’s annual economic outlook conference in Pasco.
“We understand we are guests in your community,” Triay said. “We want to work together and make sure we understand your vision for the community.”
But first the community needs to agree on a plan for Hanford’s future, said Mark Gilbertson, deputy assistant secretary at DOE.
The community is already meeting the challenge.
The Mid-Columbia Energy Initiative Committee has broad support for its plan to convert surplus Hanford land to new clean energy production projects.Likewise, the public has rallied behind efforts to preserve historic and scenic places at Hanford and open them to visitors.Community leaders are calling for talks with DOE toward resolving questions about public access to Hanford, leasing or transferring land for an energy park and other major issues.