BILL REQ. #:  S-0971.2 

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.