The Department of Energy would continue to have an Office of River Protection at the Hanford Site until 2024 under an approved amendment in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal 2019.
Since 1998, DOE has divided its cleanup work at the former plutonium production complex in Washington state between two offices: the Richland Operations Office and the then-newly formed Office of River Protection.
The amendment from Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) would extend authorization for the Office of River Protection from 2019 for five more years. It was included within the defense policy bill the House passed last week.
“I am pleased that my amendment to reauthorize the Office of River Protection through 2024 was included to keep federal cleanup efforts stable by supporting ORP’s mission to focus on tank waste,” said Newhouse, whose congressional district covers Hanford. The office’s authorization was last extended in 2011.
The Office of River Protection was created by legislation pushed by former Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) to break out some of Hanford’s most challenging environmental remediation operations – managing and treating 56 million gallons of radioactive tank waste – from the Richland Operations Office. The Richland Operations Office remains responsible for the remaining cleanup work and for operating the site.
The Energy Department has made changes to allow the two offices to work more closely together in recent years, including moving over 200 Richland Operations Office workers several miles to co-locate them in buildings occupied by about 150 employees of the Office of River Protection. The agency said in 2016 it would be well positioned after the move if the two offices were to be recombined.
The offices have combined some functions, including sharing a joint chief financial officer. With much of the cleanup in the 220 square miles of the Hanford river corridor completed, both offices will be doing more work in central Hanford.
One advantage of having separate offices has been in jockeying for funding for Hanford, with the offices having different spending plans. The Washington congressional delegation has argued Congress should consider the budgets separately and that funding increases for one should not come at the expense of the other.
The Office of River Protection budget for the current 2018 federal budget year is $1.56 billion, while the Richland Operations Office is budgeted at $947 million.
The House version of the NDAA will eventually have to be reconciled with its Senate counterpart, which was passed out of the Senate Armed Services Committee last week but has not been made public.
