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Inslee listens to a constituent.

Montage of Wing Point in Bainbridge Island and the Edmonds Ferry.

Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District

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Victory for Hanford Low-Level Nuclear Waste Cleanup

23 June 2004

Washington, DC -- U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (WA-01) announced today that the Department of Energy (DOE) has relented to Congressional pressure to bury and store low-level radioactive waste in safely lined facilities, rather than bury it in un-lined, open soil landfills, which is currently the practice at Hanford and other nuclear repositories across the nation. This week Inslee informed the DOE and his colleagues that he would offer an amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill for FY2005 (H.R. 4614) to require lined trenches for dumping all low-level waste should the DOE not reverse its stance. Responding to Congressional pressure and overwhelming public opposition to burying waste in unlined trenches, the DOE announced today that it will immediately cease the disposal of low-level waste in unlined trenches.

Said Inslee, “Today’s announcement by the DOE represents an incredible and long-fought victory for the people of Washington State. DOE recognized that we were going to pass my amendment this week in Congress to force them to change their low-level waste policy, and acceded to our demands at the last minute. Given the lined facilities already in existence and the potential for significant increases in the volume of waste being brought to Hanford for storage, there is no reason we should continue to dump radioactive wastes in unlined fills, particularly at Hanford where there is a track record of groundwater contamination ending up in the Columbia River."

Background:

Over the past year the following actions have been taken in Congress and at the federal level to force the DOE to use lined facilities:

March 4, 2004: Inslee sent a letter to the DOE expressing dismay about the Department's apparent intent to break its commitment to begin to use lined trenches to store low-level radioactive waste at Hanford immediately.

February 3, 2004: The Department of Energy released a final environmental impact statement (EIS) for solid waste at Hanford. The EIS includes a proposal to build a new, lined storage facility at Hanford to be completed in 2007. Low-level waste would continue to be buried in existing unlined trenches until the new facility was completed.

September 4, 2003: Inslee, U.S. Reps. Doc Hastings (R-WA) and David Hobson (R-OH) received assurances from Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Jessie Roberson that low-level nuclear waste at Hanford would soon be buried in properly lined trenches. Roberson told the lawmakers at a meeting in the U.S. Capitol that lined storage facilities would be used once an ongoing environmental impact statement was completed in the coming weeks.

July 18, 2003: Inslee obtained a public commitment from House Energy and Water Appropriations Chairman David Hobson (R-OH) that he would work with Inslee to speed up the use of lined trenches for disposal of low-level nuclear waste at Hanford. Inslee brought up the low-level waste disposal issue with Chairman Hobson by offering an amendment to the Energy and Water Appropriations bill.

June 28, 2003: Inslee introduced the “Safe Disposal of Low-Level Radioactive Waste Act” (H.R. 2508) to require the DOE to bury low-level radioactive waste in safely lined facilities.