_______________________________________________
HOUSE
JOINT MEMORIAL 4022
_______________________________________________
Passed
Legislature - 2000 Regular Session
State of Washington 56th
Legislature 2000 Regular Session
By
Read first time 01/21/2000.
Referred to Committee on Agriculture & Ecology.
Requesting
full funding for a vitrification treatment plant at the Hanford site.
TO
THE HONORABLE WILLIAM J. CLINTON, 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 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 United States government in the throes and peril of World War II and the
following cold war did confiscate and use five hundred sixty square miles of
desert on the banks of the Columbia River in Washington State, which came to be
known as the Hanford site, to produce plutonium for use in nuclear weapons,
which did contribute to bringing both wars to conclusion; and
WHEREAS,
The peace and well-being of the citizens of the United States was furthered for
over forty-five years by the work done at the Hanford site; and
WHEREAS,
The Hanford site is now the nation's biggest environmental clean-up project;
and
WHEREAS,
Sixty percent of the nation's defense nuclear waste is stored at Hanford in one
hundred seventy-seven underground storage tanks, most of which are beyond their
design life, and one-third of which have leaked one million gallons to the
ground; and
WHEREAS,
The tanks are seven miles south and ten miles west of the Columbia River, the
largest river in the Pacific Northwest and a national treasure; and
WHEREAS,
The site is currently in the process of cleaning up the legacy left by the
above stated work, which was in the best interests of the American people; and
WHEREAS,
The Hanford site is the only one of the United States Department of Energy
sites without a waste treatment facility; and
WHEREAS,
The Department of Energy Office of River Protection was created by Congress in
1998 to manage all aspects of the tank waste remediation project; and
WHEREAS,
Full funding of this environmentally necessary clean-up effort is imperative
and overdue;
NOW,
THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that, with due respect for other
clean-up projects' needs, full funding as necessary to build a vitrification
treatment plant, retrieve waste from the tanks, feed waste into said
vitrification treatment plant, and dispose of resulting glass logs be
forthcoming on schedule to meet the negotiated dates contained in the Tri-Party
Agreement between the Washington State Department of Ecology, the United States
Environmental Protection Agency, and the United States Department of Energy.
BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately
transmitted to the Honorable William J. Clinton, President of the United
States, the Secretary of the 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.
