Big changes are coming to the Hanford Advisory Board.
That group, which includes environmental watchdogs, the state of Oregon, municipalities and tribal sovereign nations — all with keen interests in Hanford cleanup — will be significantly whittled down. The Hanford Advisory Board is made up of around 70 people, including alternates.
As of October 1, the board will shrink to about 20 federally selected people. Instead of groups or tribal nations speaking on the board, each person will only represent themselves.
The U.S. Department of Energy announced the upcoming changes at the Hanford Advisory Board’s regular meeting on Wednesday.
“What we’re losing is the collaboration and coalition building to amplify the message that the Columbia River needs to be protected,” said Tom Sicilia, with the Oregon Department of Energy. He’s part of the board, but said he’s speaking just for himself.
Hanford is the 586-square-mile cleanup site in southeast Washington state, where the nation produced plutonium during World War II and the Cold War, and is the nation’s largest cleanup site.
Sicilia said when DOE made the announcement at the meeting, there was somber silence. He said that’s unusual behavior for the board.
DOE said in a press release this new board model will, in part, “... enhance engagement with those that live closest to Hanford.”
The board has been around for more than 30 years.
For nearly two decades, Susan Leckband helped lead the board. She said transparency at Hanford is essential for public trust.
“Do I think the public will be hurt?” Leckband asked. “I think those people that have a real concern about the environment and how’s money is being spent, yeah. Yeah, I think they will be hurt.”
She believes the DOE has been weakening the HAB for years by not appointing new members to the board.
DOE’s Hanford Field Office said its new approach to the board membership is consistent with the membership of its other advisory boards.
“The improved approach is intended to broaden opportunities for the local community,” a DOE spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement. “Rather than filling seats based on organizational affiliation, members will be appointed as community representatives who bring their own experiences, perspectives and knowledge to Board discussions.”
DOE said recordings of the meeting will be made available on the Hanford Site YouTube channel next week.
Nikolas Peterson, executive director of Hanford Challenge, a watchdog organization based in Seattle, disagrees. He said this restructuring guts transparency and oversight.
“What remains is a DOE‑controlled forum with no sovereign tribal representation, no state regulators, no labor voices and no independent organizations,” he said. “DOE didn’t modernize the Hanford Advisory Board; they wiped out the voices that hold them accountable. They got rid of anyone and everyone who ever pushes back, who asks hard questions, who doesn’t just say ‘Yes, sir’ to DOE.”
Indigenous nations
One particular concern raised is the loss of sovereign tribal nations’ ability to speak with one voice. In the new system, Indigenous people could be selected to be on the board, but they’d only be speaking as an individual.
Traditionally, the Yakama Nation, Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation and the Nez Perce Tribe have all participated as board members.
For her part, Hanford Advisory Board chair Susan Coleman said the changes are positive for the slow-moving, often stymied board.
“The decision has been made,” she said. “Now, how do we make it work? There is a way for everyone to be involved — it will just be different than they’re used to.”
Simone Anter, a senior staff attorney with the environmental group Columbia Riverkeeper, said, “We are all downwind and downstream from Hanford and what happens at the site has reverberating impacts on health and the environment throughout the region. Energy's attempts to block these voices from having a seat at the table forgets this.”
Diminished role
At that same meeting, representatives from Washington’s Department of Ecology said DOE also announced that it “intends to terminate” the memorandum of understanding for the Hanford Advisory Board between it, the Environmental Protection Agency and Washington State Department of Ecology.
In a letter, DOE said that means in about 60 days the board will no longer provide advice or report to all three agencies, only to DOE. Washington Ecology and EPA may have a diminished role in supporting the board and its work.
“For 32 years the Hanford Advisory Board has provided 326 pieces of advice to all three of our agencies on a myriad of cleanup issues,” said Ryan Miller, a spokesperson with Ecology. “These issues have ranged from public involvement to tank waste cleanup to remediation of facilities and soil and groundwater. We have really gotten so much value from the HAB by getting this advice as a state agency. It was such a valuable venue for us to be able to hear and to get this consensus input directly from that diverse board of interests.”
Miller said that Washington remains committed to the board, but its diminished role makes that more difficult.
Read the audio transcript here.
