Washington state Gov. Jay Inslee defended his administration’s use of litigation in dealing with the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site against criticism from his Republican challenger at a debate Wednesday. Inslee’s administration has litigated a reopening of the lawsuit that resulted in the 2010 consent decree that sets the terms for cleanup at Hanford as it became apparent DOE could not meet most remaining deadlines. It also filed a lawsuit seeking a role in increased chemical vapor protection for Hanford workers.
Inslee, a Democrat completing his first term in office, agreed with a questioner that tax money would be better spent on cleanup that lawsuits. But “what would be better is if the federal government fulfills its responsibilities to Washington citizens,” he said. Workers at Hanford need better protection from chemical fumes and from radioactive contamination, he said, citing an incident in the waste tank farms earlier in the week in which several workers received specks of radioactive contamination on their skin.
Lawsuits give the state a mechanism “to hold Uncle Sam’s feet to the fire,” he said. They also provide leverage in the battle for congressional appropriations. “There is a tendency to let things get kicked down the road,” according to Inslee. “Sometimes litigation is necessary.”
The legal battle over the consent decree led to a federal judge’s ruling in March requiring DOE by 2036 to begin full operation of the Waste Treatment Plant for processing tank waste left by decades of plutonium production at Hanford. That is 14 years behind the original deadline, which it had become clear DOE could not meet. The tank farm worker protection lawsuit remains in litigation, with a trial scheduled for 2017.
Inslee’s opponent, Bill Bryant, a Republican former Port of Seattle commissioner, said Inslee is not as engaged in Hanford issues as former Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire. “Because he’s relegated the issue to the attorney general, we’re mired in litigation, because that’s what an attorney general does,” Bryant said. Bryant said he’s heard – from conversations with officials from DOE and Hanford contractors and from current and former employees — that because of litigation, the state and federal governments really can’t talk to each other about how to move forward at Hanford.
“We’re so focused on getting a lawsuit and a win in court and being able to issue a memo saying ‘we won’ that we’re really not talking to people about how we can move up our time frame and clean up this mess,” he said. “We need leadership not lawsuits.” He also criticized Inslee for failing to pay attention to issues other than central Hanford tank waste, such as continuing threats from contamination near the Columbia River at the site. Inslee said he is talking with DOE officials, including Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz.
Washington state’s last Republican governor left office in 1985 and Bryant is trailing Inslee in polls.
