A virtual public meeting on fiscal 2022 budget priorities for the Energy Department’s Hanford Site in Washington state is scheduled for 3 p.m. Pacific time today.
The meeting is being organized by the three signatories to the 1989 Tri-Party Agreement that governs environmental remediation at the former plutonium production complex: Washington state, DOE, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Energy Department’s Hanford Office of River Protection and Richland Operations Office together are funded at more than $2.5 billion for fiscal 2020, which ends Sept. 30. The Donald Trump administration proposed more than $1.8 billion combined for the two offices in fiscal 2021. In line with past years, that amount is likely to be increased as Congress prepares its appropriations bills for the next year.
The Tri-Party Agreement provides a framework for complying with the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations by laying out environmental priorities and remediation milestones for Hanford.
The parties are conducting a 30-day comment period on the upcoming budget, from June 15 until July 15. Comments can be submitted by email to [email protected], or by mail to U.S. Department of Energy, Attn: Yvonne Levardi, P.O. Box 450, H6-60, Richland, WA 99352. Questions about the process can be emailed to [email protected].
Instructions on accessing the public meeting today can be found here.
