Oregon Governor Joins Lawsuit Against Bush Over Nuclear Contamination

Suit charges failure to address damages around Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

Salem-News.com

(SALEM) - Governor Kulongoski joined a lawsuit Monday against the Bush administration, charging that the federal government has failed to adequately address damage by nuclear contamination to natural resources around the Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

The other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are the State of Washington, the Yakima Nation and the Nez Perce Tribe.

“We need to ensure a full cleanup of the contamination that has occurred on and around the Hanford site,” Governor Kulongoski said. “If the Bush Administration fails to perform an adequate environmental assessment, we will do this critical work ourselves and send the bill to the federal government.”

Radioactive contamination does not respect state lines and must not be allowed to continue to leak into eco system, the Governor added.

Attorney General Hardy Myers filed the complaint at the request of Governor Kulongoski. The State of Oregon and the other plaintiffs are natural resource trustees with significant interests in the assessment and cleanup of contamination at the Hanford Site.

“We must obtain a reliable assessment of the extent of the contamination at Hanford,” Myers said. “Without Oregon’s participation, the necessary assessments may not be designed in a manner, or funded adequately, to protect the interests of Oregonians.”

The Hanford Site in Washington has significant impacts on Oregon. Thousands of Oregonians—including the residents of Hermiston, Boardman, Umatilla and neighboring communities—live within 50 miles of the Hanford Site. The majority of the population near the Columbia River downstream from Hanford—over a million people—lives in Oregon. Oregon Indian tribes exercise treaty fishing rights in the Columbia River. Virtually all shipments of radioactive material in or out of the Hanford Site travel through Oregon.

The case is Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation, et al., v. U.S. Department of Energy and U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington, Case No. CY-02-3105-LRS.