The most contaminated and dangerous area in North America: the health, safety and environmental risks from nuclear weapons production at Hanford and the struggle to protect Treaty rights.
Protecting health, safety, the Columbia River and Treaty rights from Hanford's nuclear weapons production contamination and risks. Hanford, where most of America’s Plutonium for nuclear weapons was produced in Washington State, is the most contaminated area and dangerous facility in the Western Hemisphere. The scale of Hanford is hard to imagine – the Columbia River runs through Hanford for 50 miles past nine nuclear weapons production reactors and hundreds of waste sites. At least three massive High Level Nuclear Waste tanks are leaking right now.
Three Native America Nations have Treaty rights to fish, live along the River and utilize resources at Hanford – many of which are uniquely important to their cultures. Gerry will discuss potential catastrophic and long-term risks, the advocacy efforts to require the US Department of Energy to cleanup and the fight to have Treaty rights and the health of Native Americans considered in cleanup decisions.
About the Speaker
Gerry Pollet, JD, wrote and ran the 1986 Washington State ballot referendum that protected the Columbia River from Hanford being the nation’s High Level Nuclear Waste repository. He then founded the region’s premiere public group advocating for cleanup of Hanford, Heart of America Northwest (hanfordcleanup.org). Gerry helped write and pass many of Washington’s key environmental laws (i.e. MTCA and GMA), work he has continued while representing the 46thDistrict (Seattle) since 2011 in the Washington House.
Gerry led the advocacy and litigation that ended the US Department of Energy’s discharges of untreated liquid wastes alongside the Columbia River and use of unlined soil trenches to dump radioactive wastes (2004). He has worked closely with, and served as co-counsel for, the Yakama Nation in protecting health and Treaty rights at Hanford. Gerry has been a professor at Seattle University School of Law. He is currently an instructor in WWU’s UEPP program.
Environmental Speaker Series
The Environmental Speaker Series is hosted by the College of the Environment at Western Washington University.
The Series is free and open to the public. Talks are held each Thursday at 4:30 pm in Academic Instructional Center West room 204 - AW-204. Parking is available in lot C.