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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 14, 2019)
A3 THE ASTORIAN • SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2019 Research suggests climate change is reducing snowfall By MONICA SAMAYOA Oregon Public Broadcasting Bob Brawdy/Tri-City Herald The U.S. Department of Energy says workers at the Hanford site have removed the last of the highly radioactive sludge stored in underwater containers near the Columbia River. Hanford offi cials move nuclear waste from river Associated Press RICHLAND, Wash. — Workers at the Han- ford Nuclear Reservation have removed the last of the highly radioactive sludge stored in underwater con- tainers near the Columbia River. That news was released by Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday to the Tri-City Herald. Perry says the project came in ahead of schedule and under budget after 10 years of work. Perry says those aren’t words usu- ally associated with nuclear waste cleanup. Perry plans to visit Han- ford Oct. 1 for a ceremony marking the milestone. He says completion of the project shows Northwest residents they can trust the Energy Department to per- form critical work on time. Hanford was established by the Manhattan Project in World War II to make plu- tonium, a key ingredient in the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The site, near Richland, went on to produce most of the pluto- nium for the nation’s nuclear arsenal. As a result, the site also contains the nation’s larg- est collection of nuclear waste. The most dangerous is stored in 177 aging under- ground tanks, some of which have leaked. Hanford tanks hold 60% of the nation’s most danger- ous radioactive waste left over from nuclear weapons production. Cleanup efforts at Han- ford have been underway since the late 1980s and cost more than $2 billion a year. “I hope we are going to clean up that part of the world and get it back to as pristine a condition as we can,” Perry said. The work at Hanford is expected to continue for more than half a century, including treating the waste stored in the underground tanks. The radioactive sludge still needs to be treated for disposal, with no date yet set for that work. The sludge is now stored in below-ground cells at T Plant in central Hanford. The cells were built to pro- vide shielding from radia- tion at the plant, the nation’s longest operating nuclear facility. It was originally used to remove plutonium from irradiated fuel. The sludge is highly radioactive because it con- tains particles of deterio- rated irradiated fuel that was not processed at the end of the Cold War to remove plutonium. Instead, the fuel was stored in water-fi lled cool- ing basins about 400 yards from the Columbia River. Hanford contractor CH2M Hill Plateau Remedi- ation Co., owned by Jacobs Engineering, spent a decade on the sludge transfer proj- ect, most of that making extensive preparations. Batches of sludge were pumped from the underwater containers into new 10-foot- tall containers staged on fl at- bed trucks backed into the annex. The Trump administration is fi nalizing plans to repeal an Obama-era water protections rule. Andrew Wheeler, t he U.S. Environmental Protec- tion Agency’s a dministrator, signed the repeal Thursday of the Waters of the United States rule — the fi rst step in a two- step rule-making process. “Today, EPA and the Department of the Army fi nal- ized a rule to repeal the pre- vious administration’s over- reach in the federal regulation of U.S. waters and recodify the longstanding and famil- iar regulatory text that previ- ously existed,” Wheeler said in a statement, referring to his agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The next step allows the Trump administration to fi nal- ize a new defi nition for which bodies of water deserve fed- eral protection by the end of the year. Environmental advocates said removing regulations could potentially increase pollution in certain waters, while the agricultural indus- try praised the move as cor- recting an earlier overreach in regulation. Columbia Riverkeeper’s executive director Brett Van- denHeuvel said President Donald Trump’s attempt to lessen regulations are heading in the wrong direction. “The Clean Water Act is a core part of our of nation’s laws to protect clean water. It’s been in place since 1972,” VandenHeuvel said. “It’s done a lot of good and it’s extremely popular with the American public. We want clean water.” In 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Waters of the United States rule to clar- ify governmental authority to regulate smaller tributar- ies and wetlands, but the rule never went into effect — as it was challenged in a multi state lawsuit led by Scott Pruitt, then the Oklahoma attor- Snow at Mount Bachelor. wet days as rain, meaning more precipitation will fall as rain instead of snow. “Losing the amount of water stored in snow or having a decrease in the amount of water stored in snow or having that water melt earlier in the season, can have consequences for water resources in places that are reliant on that win- tertime snowpack getting them to the spring and into the summer,” scientist Paul Loikith said. Global efforts to reduce the burning of fossil fuels can slow the rate of decline at almost all the snow sta- tions. Catalano said if business-as-usual emis- sions continue, it would lead to a faster rate of decline throughout the sec- ond half of the century. WANTED Trump administration fi nalizes plan to repeal Obama-era water protections By MONICA SAMAYOA Oregon Public Broadcasting New research at Port- land State University says climate change is decreas- ing the amount of snow in the Pacifi c Northwest. And that has implications for water resources in the region. Portland State Universi- ty’s Climate Science Lab’s collected data from 157 snow monitoring stations in Oregon, Washington state and Idaho. The fi ndings indicated warmer temperatures are causing more stormy days that have rain instead of snow at low to midlevel elevations. Lead researcher Ari- elle Catalano said calcu- lating changes at locations used for monitoring snow- fall across the mountain- ous Northwest can pro- vide information at scales relevant to those monitor- ing and managing water resources. In the Northwest, snow- pack acts as a natural res- ervoir, recharging ground- water and providing water throughout the drier sum- mer months. Snowfall impacts water supply, which can affect agricul- ture, wintertime fl ooding and recreational activities such as skiing and boating. Among the study’s fi nd- ings, by the end of the 21st century, over 90% of snow stations across the Northwest will continue to receive snow, but many of these locations will expe- rience more than half of Alder and Maple Saw Logs & Standing Timber Northwest Hardwoods • Longview, WA Contact: John Anderson • 360-269-2500 Olney Grange BEEF BAR-B-QUE Patrick Semansky/AP Photo U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks with reporters after a news conference to announce plans to revoke the Waters of the United States rule, an Obama-era regulation that provided federal protection to many U.S. wetlands and streams. ney general before he went on to be Trump’s fi rst EPA administrator. “This is not the end of this unfortunate and disastrous journey, this is just a midway point,” Center for Biological Diversity’s government affairs director Brett Hartl said. “So even if the consequences to the Northwest are not severe right now, in six months we’re looking at massive losses of wetland protections.” Fre e Est Fast ima tes Call me ti Any Jeff Hale Painting • • • • Residential Commercial Cedar Roof Treatments Exterior Repaint Specialist Over 25 years local experience 503-440-2169 Jeff Hale, Contractor LICENSED BONDED INSURED CCB#179131 Sunday, Sept. 15, 2019 • 12:30 - 5:00 PM Adults $ 15 00 • Children (under 10) $ 8 00 Beef $ 8.50/lb. 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