Clean up and restoration

updated by Daniel (Mar 08, 2013)

The Hanford Site is most contaminated piece of land in the western hemisphere. Remediation at Hanford is the world’s largest environmental cleanup project. The annual budget is about $2 billion and it employees 11,000 workers. The work is managed by the Department of Energy while the Environmental Protection Agency and the Washington Department of Ecology provide oversight. There is also a citizen-led Hanford Advisory Board made up of state and local germens, environmental organizations, business and Native American tribes. The board provides recommendations.

The cleanup has three main goals. The first is restoring the Columbia River corridor for public use. The second is converting the central plateau. The last is to prepare for the future. Besides clean up, there is concern about contaminated groundwater head toward the Columbia River. Workers safety is also a major concern.
Under the original time line cleanup at Hanford was scheduled to be completed in 30 years. After 20 years, the process was less than half done.