Cob: More radioactive dumping at Hanford!

[Ocean]

With Yucca Mountain on our minds, let's see where else radioactive waste 
is being dumped...right in our own backyard!

From: riversong at gorge.net
> Date: Thu Aug 08, 2002  06:37:40 AM US/Pacific
> Subject: MTG:Aug 14 at 6pm/flow on Columbia, let her waters flow clean!
>
>
> I'm forwarding this important message to you about local activism on 
> behalf of Columbia Riverkeeper.  Please send questions or replies to 
> Cindy DeBruler at crk at columbiariverkeeper.org 
> <mailto:crk at columbiariverkeeper.org> .
>  
>
> MARK YOUR CALENDARS!
>
> HANFORD RADIOACTIVE WASTE DUMP PROPOSAL
> PUBLIC MEETING IN HOOD RIVER
>
> AUGUST 14TH 7 P.M.
>
> (PUBLIC INTEREST GROUP MTG. AT 6 P.M.)
> BEST WESTERN HOOD RIVER INN, RIVER ROOM
>
> Attend a Hanford public meeting for the River! A proposal is on the 
> table that could double the importation of radioactive and mixed waste 
> to Hanford and allow dumping it in unlined soil trenches!
>
> o Dumping more radioactive waste will contaminate groundwater flowing 
> towards the Columbia River for thousands of years.
>
> o The risk of nuclear waster transportation to Hanford is not even 
> considered in the EIS by USDOE. More radioactive waste on the roads 
> means a greater risk of accidents and more opportunities for nuclear 
> terrorism.
>
> For almost 60 years, the nuclear industry has been producing large 
> volumes of radioactive and chemical waste. In order to continue to 
> produce nuclear materials, there must be a solution to the nuclear 
> waste problem. Yucca Mountain is part of their proposed solution. 
> Hanford is another part. An environmental impact statement is out for 
> public comment in which USDOE would like to dump about 70,000 more 
> truck loads of dangerous waste at Hanford. The proposal is to ship up 
> to 346,000 cubic meters of radioactive and mixed waste to be disposed 
> of in massive trenches that would be illegal for household garbage.
>
> This EIS is titled the Hanford Site Solid Waste Programmatic 
> Environmental Impact Statement. This 800 page document is supposed to 
> assess what the potential impacts from burying this waste at Hanford 
> might be. Copies of the entire EIS are available from Michael Collins 
> at 509-376-6536, or michael_s_collins at rl.gov.  Columbia Riverkeeper 
> believes the EIS fails miserably to adequately address risks from these 
> actions. USDOE has failed to deal with the current waste volumes at 
> Hanford by not doing a comprehensive risk assessment that would access 
> what impacts will occur from the on-site waste over time for as long as 
> the materials  remain hazardous. For some radioactive materials, this 
> is millions of years.
>
> Now, they want to add more without looking at combined effects of the 
> existing waste on groundwater, human health or the fish and wildlife of 
> the river. We must ask how this will affect the future of the 
> groundwater, the Columbia River, river habitat and people living there 
> for the next 100 or 200 years. We already have over 100 square miles of 
> contaminated groundwater and radioactive and chemical plumes entering 
> the river. How much more can the river take? Is this what you want for 
> Hanford and the Northwest?
>
> These meetings are very important!  We need your support in telling the 
> Department of Energy that Hanford does not need to accept any more 
> waste until we can adequately assess and deal with our existing waste 
> problems. Until an independent, comprehensive risk assessment is 
> completed for the entire Hanford Site, we will not know what risks the 
> Northwest will be left with after the "clean-up" is completed. Without 
> doing this, we are driving in the dark with our lights off hoping all 
> will be fine.
>
> Please come and bring your friends and family! The river needs your 
> support.
> For additional information, call Columbia Riverkeeper at (509) 493-2808.
>
>