Having lived in Richland for a number of years, I very much enjoyed your article Saturday about the Hanford Reach. But one question it didn’t really address is why this reach was the only one not dammed. The answer is because of the nuclear activities at Hanford.
The Army Corps of Engineers very much wanted to build a dam at North Richland, which would have flooded the reach. They pulled out all political stops to get it, even promising barge traffic to Wenatchee if the dam were built. And they almost certainly would have gotten it, had it not been for objections raised by the Atomic Energy Commission and its successor agencies. Their concern was the dam would raise the water table, making it more likely that radioactive materials could travel to the river. Site security, which was important then, was probably also an issue.
The Hanford Reach is one legacy of the nuclear programs at Hanford for which we can all be thankful.
Monroe
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