Staff Reports
WC Monitor
10/2/2015
The Department of Energy this week transferred 1,641 acres of largely undeveloped land at the Hanford Site in Washington state to the Tri-City Development Council (TRIDEC), its community reuse organization. The acreage is less than 0.5 percent of the total Hanford land and is in an area designated by the Hanford Comprehensive Land Use Plan for industrial use. TRIDEC requested the land in 2010 after DOE officials began talking about using land at its environmental management sites for clean energy parks as the footprint of active cleanup was reduced. TRIDEC’s goal is to attract industry to create jobs to replace those that will be lost as portions of Hanford cleanup are completed. A portion of the transferred area, 300 acres, was requested for a solar farm, and TRIDEC is in talks with two solar companies interested in that land.
TRIDEC had requested a square-shaped parcel of land on the southern edge of Hanford at the Richland city limits to the west of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the Hanford 300 Area. But DOE looked at a larger parcel, carving out areas it said needed to be held back from the transfer to provide an irregularly shaped parcel of 1,641 unneeded acres. Land held back included an area to serve as a buffer near the final cleanup work in the 300 Area and land used for clean soil to backfill excavation sites at the 300 Area. Other land was used for a former construction landfill at Hanford. Some land also may have historic or cultural significance.
When the land that was transferred this week was seized for the Manhattan Project in 1943, sections were owned by the federal government, the state government, Benton County, an irrigation district, and private businesses and individuals. Tribes also used the land and have treaty rights for hunting and gathering. DOE signed a memorandum of agreement related to the transfer with the Yakamas, Nez Perce, Wanapum, and Umatillas. DOE agreed to develop a native revegetation plan outside the 1,641 acres to allow the tribes to gather traditional foods. It also will develop and implement a rehabilitation plan for what DOE termed a culturally significant area near the land that will be transferred. The tribes will have access to the transferred land until it is developed and then an access agreement will be worked out with the land owners. Any materials found that have significance to the tribes, including buried human remains, artifacts, or archaeological material, must be turned over to DOE for return to the tribes.
DOE has previously released Hanford land, including the city of Richland, which was government-owned until 1958. Between then and 1998 it turned over additional property, including land, buildings, and railroad assets, to the Port of Benton. The port estimates those transfers, including more than 800 acres in what is now north Richland and a $16 million warehouse, have led to the development of 4,000 jobs. Most of the newly transferred land will be turned over to the Port of Benton and city of Richland for development. TRIDEC estimates that the cost to develop full service, including roads and utilities, for industrial use could be about $40,000 per acre.
DOE had a deadline of Sept. 30, 2015, to transfer 1,641 acres of Hanford land after former Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) became frustrated by the slow progress toward a transfer and inserted the requirement in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), who replaced Hastings after his retirement, wants more Hanford land to be released. “As Hanford’s cleanup mission is completed, this unneeded federal land should continue to be returned to the local community for the goals of conservation, preservation, public access and economic development to be achieved,” he said in a speech this week on the House floor.
