Richland Operations Office
Long-Term Stewardship

Long-term stewardship as defined in “A Report to Congress on Long-Term Stewardship” (U.S. Department of Energy [DOE], 2001):... refers to all activities necessary to ensure protection of human health and the environment following completion of remediation, disposal, or stabilization of a site or a portion of a site. Long-term stewardship includes all engineered and institutional controls designed to contain or to prevent exposures to residual contamination and waste, such as surveillance activities, record-keeping activities, inspections, groundwater monitoring, ongoing pump and treat activities, cap repair, maintenance of entombed buildings or facilities, maintenance of other barriers and containment structures, access control, and posting signs.

The Hanford Site has taken a holistic, multigenerational and integrated approach to long-term stewardship that includes the following:

1. Protection of human health and the environment from the risks associated with the contamination remaining after completion of the cleanup mission.
2. Consideration of its unique biological, natural, and cultural resources as DOE conducts and completes cleanup at the Hanford Site and authorizes appropriate new uses.
3. Reuse of Hanford Site assets such as land, facilities, technologies and skilled personnel that are no longer required to support Hanford Site missions.

Although the use of the term “long-term stewardship” is relatively new, long-term stewardship activities began when the Hanford Site was first used to support national defense in 1943. Only a small part of the site has been used for actual production purposes with the rest managed as a buffer zone. As cleanup is completed, long-term stewardship will become a major focus of environmental activities.

Why is Long-Term Stewardship Important?

Because the completion of cleanup will not result in the total elimination of all contamination (radiological and/or hazardous), long-term stewardship activities will be required for portions of the Hanford Site to ensure protection of human health and the environment. Restoration of contaminated areas to their original condition is often not feasible because of associated worker and environmental risks, costs, and technical and logistical issues. At the conclusion of the cleanup program, residual hazardous contamination will remain, both on the surface and subsurface.

Why Now?

DOE is committed to maintaining the protection of human health and the environment and to meeting its long-term, post-cleanup obligations in a safe and cost-effective manner.  Although the completion of the cleanup and transition to LTS remains some time off, actions being taken today will ensure that LTS considerations are incorporated into the cleanup decisions. 

The purpose of this website is share the information that has been developed to illustrate DOE’s commitment to ensuring the long-term effectiveness of the remedial actions and the continued protection of human health and the environment.  The documents and links included herein provide additional details regarding the incorporation of LTS considerations into the planning and execution of the cleanup activities in addition to planning for a smooth and seamless transition to LTS.