WASHINGTON, DC, February 20, 2009 (ENS) – The $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act signed into law Tuesday by President Barack Obama will not only create jobs, it will create green jobs, the new U.S. EPA administrator said today.

“Through the President’s stimulus package, green initiatives will play a significant role in powering economic recovery,” said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.

The act specifically includes $7.22 billion for projects and programs administered by the EPA. These programs will protect and promote both green jobs and a healthier environment, Jackson said.

Christina Romer, chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, has estimated that the recovery package will save or create 3.5 million jobs over the next two years. Jackson says many of those will be jobs that protect and enhance public health and the environment.

“EPA’s portion of the plan will create good, sustainable jobs that help produce cleaner drinking water, purer air, environmentally friendly urban and rural re-development, and reduced greenhouse gases,” said Jackson. “This is a perfect example of economic growth and environmental protection working hand in hand to the benefit of all Americans.”

Clean drinking water (Photo courtesy Washington State Department of Health)

The Clean Water State Revolving Fund and Drinking Water State Revolving Fund will receive a total of $6 billion – of that total $4 billion will be used help communities with water quality and wastewater infrastructure needs and $2 billion will be spent on drinking water infrastructure needs.

Of the total, $1.2 billion, or 20 percent, must be used for green infrastructure, such as stormwater mitigation, water or energy efficiency improvements or other environmentally innovative activities.

“This is an unprecedented amount of money for clean water and rivers,” said Betsy Otto, vice president of strategic partnerships for the nonprofit organization American Rivers. “It’s a real investment in more sustainable water infrastructure for the future, and it will boost health, safety and quality of life in communities across the country.”

The stimulus package contains $100 million for competitive grants to evaluate and clean up former industrial and commercial sites called brownfields.

Diesel emissions reduction projects will be funded with $300 million for grants and loans that will be disbursed to regional, state and local governments, tribal agencies, and nonprofit organizations.

The EPA will receive $600 million for Superfund hazardous waste cleanup and $200 million for cleanup of petroleum leaks from underground storage tanks.

The new law is geared for performance and unprecedented transparency, said Jackson. Preference will be given to projects that can be started and completed expeditiously, and EPA intends to quickly move designated funds to states, she said. All funding will be monitored by EPA’s Inspector General, which will receive $20 million for oversight and review.

The Apollo Alliance, a coalition of labor, business, environmental, and community leaders, says the new law contains $86 billion in clean energy and green-collar job programs.

In addition, the Alliance points to $27.5 billion in road and highway construction funds, much of which state transportation department directors say will be used to repair infrastructure and not on building new highways.

The stimulus measure also contains $830 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a portion of which will be used for river restoration projects.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is to receive $115 million for priority construction, repair, habitat restoration and other activities on public lands the agency governs.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will also receive $165 million for priority critical deferred maintenance, capital improvements, habitat restoration and other activities on Service properties.

The Natural Resources Conservation Service will get $290 million for structural and nonstructural watershed infrastructure improvements, including purchase and restoration of floodplain easements.

Wild and Scenic Manistee River in Michigan (Photo courtesy U.S. Government)

And the U.S. Forest Service will receive $650 million for priority road, bridge and trail maintenance, including related watershed restoration and ecosystem enhancements projects.

“The clean water, drinking water, and river restoration provisions in the bill will create jobs, improve the nation’s rivers and clean water supplies, and save communities money,” said Otto. “This kind of investment represents a sea change, and will ensure that the nation is better prepared to meet the water challenges of the 21st Century. These provisions are a down payment on a better future and will improve the lives of all Americans.”

Kevin Eber of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory says the measure includes $16.8 billion for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. He calculates that the funding is a nearly tenfold increase for the agency, which received $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2008.

While the bulk of the new EERE funding will go into direct grants and rebates, $2.5 billion will support EERE’s applied research, development and deployment activities, including $800 million for the Biomass Program, $400 million for the Geothermal Technologies Program, and $50 million to increase the energy efficiency of information and communications technologies.

The act also directs the Department of Energy, DOE, to analyze the nation’s electrical grid to determine if significant potential sources of renewable energy are locked out of the electrical market by a lack of adequate transmission capacity. DOE must then provide recommendations for achieving adequate transmission capacity.

An additional $400 million will support the establishment of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy, an agency to support innovative energy research.

The economic stimulus act also stipulates that $5 billion will go towards the Weatherization Assistance Program, and the act increases the eligible income level under the program, increases the funding assistance level to $6,500 per home, and allows new weatherization assistance for homes that were weatherized as recently as 1994.

A complementary measure in the act provides $4 billion to the Department of Housing and Urban Development to rehabilitate and retrofit public housing, including increasing the energy efficiency of units, plus an additional $510 million to do the same for homes maintained by Native American housing programs.

An additional $400 million will support efforts to add electric technologies to vehicles.

The act also directs $2 billion in EERE funds toward grants for the manufacturing of advanced battery systems and components within the United States, as well as the development of supporting software.

Toyota hybrid display at an auto show allows visitors to see all the components of a hybrid-powered vehicle. (Photo courtesy NREL)

The battery grants will support advanced lithium-ion batteries and hybrid electric systems. Another $300 million will support an Alternative Fueled Vehicles Pilot Grant Program, and an additional $300 million will support rebates for energy efficient appliances, while also supporting DOE’s efforts under the Energy Star Program.

The act also stipulates that $3.2 billion will go toward Energy Efficiency and Conservation Block Grants, which were established in the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, but were not previously funded, Eber explains.

The grants will go toward states, local governments and tribal governments to support the development of energy efficiency and conservation strategies and programs, including energy audit programs and projects to install fuel cells and solar, wind, and biomass power projects at government buildings.

The new law includes $6 billion to support loan guarantees for renewable energy and electric transmission technologies. The funds are expected to guarantee more than $60 billion in loans but only for projects that will start construction by September 30, 2011, and that involve renewable energy, electric transmission, or leading-edge biofuel technologies.

In addition, the act provides $4.5 billion for the DOE Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability for activities to modernize the nation’s electrical grid, integrate demand-response equipment and analyze, develop and implement smart grid technologies.

The tax section of the act provides a three-year extension of the production tax credit for most renewable energy facilities, while offering expansions on and alternatives for tax credits on renewable energy systems.

Components for the wind industry manufactured at the Hodge Foundry in Greenville, Pennsylvania (Photo courtesy Hodge Foundry)

The extension keeps the wind energy production tax credit in effect through 2012, while keeping the production tax credit alive for municipal solid waste, qualified hydropower, biomass, geothermal energy, marine and hydrokinetic renewable energy facilities through 2013.

The production tax credit, PTC, provides a credit for every kilowatt-hour produced at new qualified facilities during the first 10 years of operation, provided the facilities are placed in service before the tax credit’s expiration date.

“Unfortunately,” says Eber, “the current slump in business activity means that fewer businesses are seeking tax credits, which means that renewable energy producers are having trouble taking advantage of the PTC. With that in mind, the act also allows owners of non-solar renewable energy facilities to make an irrevocable election to earn a 30 percent investment credit rather than the PTC. The option remains in effect for the current period of the PTC, that is, through 2012 for wind energy facilities and through 2013 for other qualified renewable energy facilities.”

For residential renewable energy systems, the act removes all caps on the tax credits, which equal 30 percent of the cost of qualified solar energy systems, geothermal heat pumps, small wind turbines and fuel cell systems. The act also eliminates a reduction in credits for installations with subsidized financing, explains Eber.

For businesses and individuals buying electric vehicles, the act simplifies and expands the available tax credits. For electric low-speed vehicles, motorcycles, and three-wheeled vehicles, a 10 percent tax credit is available through 2011, with a cap of $2,500.

For vehicles converted into qualified plug-in electric vehicles, a 10 percent tax credit is also available through 2011, with a cap of $4,000.

And starting in 2010, full-scale commercial plug-in electric vehicles can earn a maximum tax credit of $7,500, depending on their battery capacity. The credit will phase out over a year for each manufacturer after they sell 200,000 plug-in vehicles.

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SPOKANE, Washington, September 8, 2008 (ENS) – This week, scientists from the Washington state Department of Ecology will begin using a fluorescent dye to study flows in Hangman Creek, also known as Latah Creek. The information is being gathered in an effort to understand how to improve water quality in the creek.

The Hangman Creek watershed drains approximately 431,000 acres and spans across the Washington-Idaho border, draining parts of four counties.

“We want residents along the creek to know that they needn’t worry if they see a slight reddish, fluorescent tint in the stream during the week of September 8th,” said Joe Joy, an environmental scientist for the state agency.

“Using dye for this type of study is very common,” Joy said. “And research has long shown that the dye does not affect human health or aquatic life in any way at the very low concentrations we use.”

Researchers will track the plume of the dye with a fluorometer, an instrument that is able to detect the small amount of dye in the river.

Data collected from the flow test will reveal how long it takes water to move through a given stretch of the creek. The information will be used in computer models to help scientists understand the creek’s water quality problems.

“This flow study is part of Ecology’s efforts to develop a plan that will address low dissolved oxygen and pH impairments in the stream,” said Elaine Snouwaert, who is coordinating the agency’s water quality improvement plans for the Hangman Creek watershed.

Parts of Hangman Creek and several of its tributaries violate dissolved oxygen and pH water quality standards, endangering fish and other aquatic life.

The flow study will help determine the cause of these impairments. Common causes of dissolved oxygen and pH impairments are excess nutrients or sunlight entering the stream. Low stream flow makes these problems worse.

Hangman Creek and its tributaries also fail water quality standards for bacteria, temperature and turbidity. The Department of Ecology is currently working on a plan to address these problems.

The Spokane County Conservation District, too, is working with local residents, interest groups, and government organizations to address water quality issues in the Hangman Creek watershed.

The impacts of population growth, agricultural production, fisheries, and water pollution will be addressed as the project team members work together to develop recommendations for managing water resource and water quantity in the basin.

Upstream influences, land use changes, as well as stream channel and flood plain alterations, over the last 100 years contribute to what district scientists call “flashy” flow conditions and unstable stream banks.

Flows in Hangman Creek range from summer flows as low as 10 cubic feet per second to peak flows in excess of 20,000 cfs. Maximum discharge in Hangman Creek occurs from December through April, resulting from warm Chinook winds that induce rain on snow events. These events produce high turbid flows that can last a few hours to several weeks and occur many times within a season.

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BELLEVUE, Washington (ENS) – The City of Seattle, King County and the Boeing Company have signed an agreement with the state of Washington to investigate and propose solutions for cleanup of soil, stormwater, and groundwater contamination in the North Boeing Field/Georgetown Steam Plant area of south Seattle.

Signed Thursday, the agreement will pave the way for a cleanup of contaminated sediment at the bottom of Slip 4, a nearby inlet of the Duwamish Waterway, that is planned by the U.S. EPA.

Polychlorinated biphenyls and other pollutants have been found in storm drains that empty to Slip 4 from city, county and Boeing property in the study area.

A cleanup in the 137 acre North Boeing Field/Georgetown Steam Plant area will help prevent re-contamination of the inlet.

The Washington state Department of Ecology will conduct an investigation and work with the three property owners, who will pay the estimated $2.5 million cost of the study and analysis.

The area to be studied includes northern portions of King County International Airport, which is commonly known as Boeing Field as well as property owned by King County and currently leased by Boeing to the west, and the city-owned Georgetown Steam Plant site to the north.

North Boeing Field has a complex storm drain system that includes over 400 catch basins, 400 manholes, up to 16 oil water separators and lift stations, parking lot ditches, and roof drains. The system connects with seven to eight miles of piping ranging from four to 48 inches in diameter.

Stormwater from the Steam Plant flume and from North Boeing Field flows into Slip 4, which is part of the Early Action Area with the Lower Duwamish Waterway Superfund Site.

The Lower Duwamish Waterway (Photo
courtesy Dept. of Ecology)

A five-mile reach of the Duwamish River – upstream of Harbor Island – is the federal Lower Duwamish Superfund cleanup site, jointly administered by the EPA and the state Department of Ecology. Slip 4 is part of that larger sediment cleanup effort.

The Lower Duwamish Waterway site is a 5.5 mile portion of the Lower Duwamish River which flows into Elliott Bay, a part of Puget Sound.

Cleanup of the waterway is part of Ecology’s effort to reduce and prevent toxic threats to the environment and to support the governor’s Puget Sound Initiative – a cooperative effort among state, local, federal and tribal governments, businesses and organizations to protect and restore Washington’s inland marine waters.

In the solids from the stormwater drainage system, contaminants of concern are:

* Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
* Polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs)
* Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs)
* Arsenic, copper, lead, mercury, and zinc

In Slip 4 sediments, contaminants of concern are:

* Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
* Semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs)

The three parties have conducted several cleanup and storm drain improvement projects over the past 25 years, all aimed at cleaning up soil and groundwater contamination from past industrial activities.

Still, PCBs and other contaminants continue to appear in storm drain sediments.

“Before cleaning Slip 4, we must find how to prevent its re-contamination,” said Jim Pendowski, who leads Ecology’s toxic cleanup program.

“The agreement by Seattle, King County and Boeing to undertake a single, unified investigation makes sense, given the area’s complex contamination problems,” he said. “This approach may serve as an effective model for other challenging parts of the Lower Duwamish.”

An Agreed Order between the Department of Ecology and the city, the county and Boeing is online here [www.ecy.wa.gov].

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BELLINGHAM, Washington, June 26, 2008 (ENS) – The Department of Ecology has fined a construction company $8,000 for its repeated failure to prevent erosion and stop sediment from flowing off a state highway construction project into a nearby creek.

Bellingham-based IMCO General Construction is the primary contractor working on improvements to State Route 539, or Guide Meridian, that runs from Bellingham to the international border with Canada.

A Department of Ecology inspection verified reports that on October 18, 2007 muddy water was allowed to flow off the construction site into a salmon-bearing stream called Ten Mile Creek.

Water with excessive mud or silt can harm aquatic life by damaging fish gills and clogging stream bed gravel that the fish need for spawning.

The inspection revealed erosion and poor sediment management throughout the project area.

The company also has failed to properly prevent similar pollution of state waters at three other sites in Whatcom County during the last year, inspectors found.

“These kinds of discharges can be prevented through simple adherence to established pollution prevention measures,” said Department of Ecology water quality inspector Mak Kaufman.

The poor construction practices on the SR 539 project violate the state construction stormwater permit, issued by the state environmental agency to the Washington State Department of Transportation, WSDOT.

Through its own inspection and reporting, WSDOT has repeatedly notified the company about the runoff problems and instructed the firm to fix them.

WSDOT has provided the Department of Ecology with regular reports of discharge violations, as required by the permit.

“WSDOT has operated appropriately throughout this construction project,” Kaufman said.

IMCO has cooperated with the Department of Ecology investigation and conditions on the site have improved, said Kaufman.

Within 30 days, the company may appeal the penalty to the Department of Ecology or to the Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board.

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BELLEVUE, Washington, March 31, 2008 (ENS) – The Washington state Department of Ecology has fined developers of a Lynnwood residential construction site $12,000 for failing to prevent polluted runoff into Swamp Creek.

Pacific Ridge Homes LLC of Bothell, Washington are the developers of the eight-acre project, Blackstone Residential Community at 15730 Manor Way.

In announcing the fine on Thursday, the state agency said the developers failed to cover bare soils and protect cleared slopes, even though inspectors from the Department of Ecology pointed out the need for these protections at repeated visits to the site.

These measures are designed to protect exposed earth from washing away in rainy weather. They are required under the Department of Ecology’s construction stormwater permit, which applies to construction sites larger than one acre in size.

“The permit requires contractors and developers to take necessary measures in preventing water pollution in the first place,” said Kevin Fitzpatrick, a regional supervisor for the state agency’s water quality program.

“Hundreds of construction sites follow these requirements every day around the state. At Blackstone, we saw what happens when prevention falls short,” he said.

Inspectors informed the site’s managers of several problems after site visits on November 7 and December 20-21, 2007.

They found that exposed soil was not or inadequately covered, thus being exposed to rain erosion. Slopes needed erosion protection. Inspectors could see slope sediments and debris on Manor Way.

The inspectors found that channels leading to a stormwater treatment vault had no lining, so water flowing into the vault contained unnecessarily higher amounts of silt.

The violations contributed to releases of muddy water from the construction site. The site’s stormwater discharges drain to Swamp Creek, which already does not meet state standards for dissolved oxygen, temperature, and fecal coliform bacteria.

High levels of silt in stream water can harm the breathing gills of fish.

Swamp Creek is the subject of a water improvement plan, in cooperation with local governments and organizations.

Swamp Creek flows to Lake Washington, which drains to Puget Sound.

The Department of Ecology’s construction stormwater efforts are part of the department’s support of the Puget Sound Partnership’s efforts to protect and restore the Sound by 2020.

Pacific Ridge Homes may appeal the penalty to the Department of Ecology or to the Washington State Pollution Control Hearings Board within 30 days.

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EVERETT, Washington, March 13, 2008 (ENS) – A settlement between the Washington state Department of Ecology and the Kimberly-Clark pulp mill in Everett will fund $125,000 in projects to reduce wood smoke and diesel vehicle pollution in the city.

The agreement is part of a $165,000 package to settle a $235,000 penalty Ecology issued over smoke emissions from a months-long fire in 2007 at the company’s wood fuel storage pile. In addition to funding the local clean air programs, Kimberly-Clark will pay $40,000 of the settlement amount to the Department of Ecology.

“This settlement will result in direct, long-term air quality improvements that can be implemented right away in neighborhoods affected by the fire,” said Carol Kraege, supervisor of the agency’s Industrial Section, which oversees the state’s major pulp mills.

“The projects will clean up sources of fine airborne particles, the main pollutant in the smoke from the pile fire,” she said.

Kimberly-Clark will pay $125,000 to the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency, which will extend two existing pollution-reduction programs.

The agency will spend $20,000 to expand a wood-stove stove replacement program to Everett.

The remaining $105,000 will enhance the Clean Air Agency’s Diesel Solutions program, which retrofits heavy-duty diesel vehicles with pollution-reduction equipment. Funds can be used for transit coaches and other Everett city vehicles, as well waste-haul trucks that operate under city contracts.

The company will make all payments within 30 days.

“I want to thank Ecology and the Clean Air Agency for collaborating with us to settle this issue in a manner that will not only benefit residents of the immediate area, but the overall Everett community as well,” said Chris Isenberg, Everett mill manager.

“I know that this unusual situation was a trying time for local residents,” Isenberg said. “We have a new management plan in place to preclude this type of event from happening in the future and once again commit to being a good corporate citizen.”

Smoke and odors from the fuel pile fire prompted citizen complaints to Ecology on 15 days, between September 27 and November 15, 2007. The company promptly cooperated with Ecology to end the burning, but the persistent fire took months to extinguish.

The company – which operates a pulp and tissue mill on Everett’s Port Gardiner waterfront – stores wood material known as “hogged fuel” at industrial property across town, along the Snohomish River, for one of the mill’s power generators. Mechanical problems closed the generator between June 21 and September 21, 2007. During this time the pile reached an unusually large size.

The interior of large hogged fuel stockpiles can reach high temperatures from self-generated heat. To prevent the pile from getting hot enough to start burning, earthmoving equipment shifts the material around to prevent hot spots from forming. During the boiler shutdown, the hogged fuel pile size became too large to keep it sufficiently turned over. The fire is believed to have ignited sometime in July.

Wood stoves and diesel vehicles account for 55 and 17 percent, respectively, of fine airborne particle emissions in Snohomish County. The tiny particles, each less than one-fiftieth the width of a human hair, can damage lung tissue over time.

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OLYMPIA, Washington, December 10, 2007 (ENS) – The Washington State Department of Ecology Friday announced an agreement with Alcoa that has the aluminum giant cleaning up more than 95 percent of polluted sediments from the Columbia River next fall.

The agreement will be finalized when the cleanup action plan, being developed this winter, is complete.

The agreement calls for Alcoa to dredge up to 95 percent of known polychlorinated biphenyls, PCBs, that are contaminating the river bed at its former aluminum smelter site near Vancouver, Washington.

When the dredging is finished and the ecosystem has had time to restore itself, the residual contamination should not exceed 98 parts per billion (ppb) PCBs.

Current sampling indicates most of the contamination in the top layers of the riverbed generally ranges from 100 to 1,000 ppb PCBs. There is a hot spot with a concentration as high as 300,000 ppb, with some contamination as deep as three feet, according to the Department of Ecology.

The state agency and Alcoa agree that dredging is the best option for reducing the level of contamination. The cleanup goal represents the residual level of contamination that will remain after dredging is complete, sand is brought in to fill holes and the site returns to equilibrium.

“This will be a very aggressive cleanup to remove as much contamination as physically possible,” said Carol Kraege, whose Ecology team oversees the Alcoa site. “Unfortunately, the Columbia River is besieged with contamination from many sources. This cleanup is just one of many important steps in the long-term efforts to restore the river’s health.”

Alcoa started operating a primary aluminum smelter in 1940 on a site of several hundred acres adjacent to the Columbia River in Vancouver. About 56,000 tons of waste potlinings containing cyanide, fluoride, and heavy metals were piled on bare ground on the site during 1973-80.

PCBs can cause a variety of health effects and have been linked to cancer. The dredging will lessen the risk to human health and will be protective of wildlife.

High levels of PCBs were found in clam tissue collected around the Alcoa property and throughout the river. Alcoa recently announced its intention to dig and dispose of all clams on its site as soon as feasible.

While harvesting freshwater clams in the Columbia is illegal, some have expressed concern that people may ignore the prohibition and dig for clams.

The Alcoa Vancouver site is located in Clark County on the north bank of the Columbia River three miles northwest of downtown Vancouver. Alcoa constructed an aluminum smelter on the western portion of the site in 1940.

Between 1944 and 1970, a number of fabrication operations were added to the facility to form aluminum into finished goods such as wire, rod, and extrusions. Alcoa operated the entire facility for 45 years, until its closure in 1985.

To date, Alcoa has spent approximately $42 million on cleanup at the Vancouver site, including $34 million on cleanup of PCBs.

Alcoa will complete the remedial investigation and a feasibility study report for the entire site by the end of December. In early January, Alcoa is expected to submit the sediment cleanup engineering plans for Ecology review and approval. Ecology will also begin work on a cleanup action plan for the site, including the sediments. The public will have an opportunity to comment on the cleanup action plan when the draft is published in early spring.

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RICHLAND, Washington, December 6, 2007 (ENS) – The Washington State Department of Ecology has issued a $500,000 penalty against the U.S. Department of Energy, DOE, for a release of radioactive hazardous tank waste to the soil at the Hanford Nuclear Site on the Columbia River in central Washington.

The waste endangered workers and brought a halt to cleanup of the leaky underground single-shell tanks.

The spill occurred on July 27, 2007, when contractor CH2M HILL Hanford Group was pumping waste from a tank. Workers tried to unblock a pump by running it in reverse. This resulted in a high-level waste spill to the ground.

“Over 80 gallons of highly radioactive tank waste spilled to the environment,” said Jane Hedges, manager of Ecology’s Nuclear Waste Program. “Before the spill was discovered, a series of poor decisions put workers in grave danger from exposure to the tank waste and vapors. This accident calls into question the adequacy of the safety culture which is so critical at the tank farms.”

Hedges, who leads the state’s oversight of the Hanford cleanup, said, “We are troubled by the length of time it took CH2M HILL and the Department of Energy to determine there was a release of radioactive tank waste. There was a delay of more than seven hours from the time the first high radiation readings were discovered. This is completely unacceptable.”
The interior of a single-shell tank at Hanford containing highly radioactive waste (Photo courtesy DOE)

The state agency investigated the circumstances surrounding the spill, including the equipment design, incident notification, and emergency response. A series of administrative and engineering failures were found to have contributed to this accident.

The DOE conducted its own investigation using procedures reserved for the most serious of accidents at agency facilities, and identified contributing causes to be inadequate engineering reviews and testing, work controls, industrial hygiene, radiological protection, medical response, and emergency management.

Ecology’s penalty cites two violations. The first involved inadequacies in the design of the waste retrieval system.

“The Raw Water System used to provide dilution water for the pump had no backflow equipment to prevent waste from backing up into it,” said Eric Van Mason, inspector for the state agency.

The system is designed to supply water, not to transfer or contain waste. When the pump was run in reverse, tank waste traveled into a rubber hose above the ground. The rubber hose ruptured, resulting in the spill.

The second violation involved inadequate engineering reviews. The Tank Waste Retrieval System design was not adequately or fully reviewed in accordance with state regulations.

Van Mason said, “The inspection found that too few staff were on the job to manage the incident during the graveyard shift. Inspections determined that lighting was inadequate in the pump pit area, and poor positioning of the S Tank Farm video camera also contributed to the delay in response to the accident.”

As a result of this accident, all work related to retrieving the liquids from Tank 241-S-102 has been stopped. Additionally, all tank waste retrieval work throughout the tank farms has been suspended until the contributing factors can be identified and resolved and work can resume safely.

The Department of Energy has already missed several deadlines for retrieval of waste from the 149 single-shell tanks.

“Radioactive tank waste is the greatest human health and environmental risk at Hanford,” said Hedges. “Getting the waste out of the aging, leaky Hanford tanks is the state of Washington’s top cleanup priority. The mismanagement of the retrieval work that caused this spill has set back the already delayed tank retrieval work even further.”

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