BILL REQ. #: S-0971.2
State of Washington | 61st Legislature | 2009 Regular Session |
Read first time 02/05/09. Referred to Committee on Environment, Water & Energy.
TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND
TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF
REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED, AND TO THE SECRETARY OF THE
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY:
We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of
the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully
represent and petition as follows:
WHEREAS, The Hanford Reservation in southeast Washington state is
an enduring memorial to Washington's contribution to the nation's
efforts that brought a close to World War II and to the Cold War
nuclear weapons program; and
WHEREAS, America's nuclear weapons program left the Hanford
Reservation as the most contaminated site in North America and one of
the world's most complex and difficult clean-up sites; and
WHEREAS, It is essential that environmental actions to cleanup the
groundwater and soil proceed expeditiously to protect the citizens and
the environment of Washington state; and
WHEREAS, In 1989, the United States Department of Energy, United
States Environmental Protection Agency, and Washington state signed the
Hanford Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order, also known as the
Tri-Party Agreement, which provided legally enforceable milestones to
cleanup Hanford over a 30-year period; and
WHEREAS, The budgeted amount for Fiscal Year 2009 was $600 million
less than needed to keep the cleanup on schedule, and at this funding
level it would require 140 years to complete the cleanup of the Hanford
Reservation; and
WHEREAS, The contamination at the Hanford Reservation continues to
place the public and the environment at risk and threatens the Columbia
river, along which over one million people living in 42 cities and
towns, where 8000 farms valued at $6.4 billion are situated and 175,000
acres of land are irrigated with water directly from the river with a
value of at least $31 million per year; and
WHEREAS, Below the Hanford Reservation on the Columbia river,
economic activities valued at $200 million per year are at risk, as
well as commercial fishery harvests of 240,000 fish per year, valued at
$4 million and 25,000 companies in Washington that provide 280,000 jobs
and a payroll of $9.5 billion;
NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the
federal government fully fund the needs of a sustained environmental
cleanup in keeping with federal and state laws and the Tri-Party
Agreement, and provide for the protection of the Columbia river and the
health and welfare of the citizens of the state of Washington.
BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately
transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United
States, the Secretary of the United States Department of Energy, the
President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of
Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of
Washington.