WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell today challenged the Obama Administration’s proposed $190 million budget cuts for the Richland Operations Office—the organization charged with overseeing the cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site—in a hearing of the Senate Committee on Finance.

“This is the largest cleanup project in the world,” said Cantwell. “It needs to happen, and it needs continued support…I want to put the administration on notice that this is something we need to prioritize in the budget and we need to work together on.”

For years Cantwell has called for greater accountability and oversight of the cleanup efforts at the Hanford site—one of the world’s largest and most complex environmental cleanups—to both protect workers from exposure to toxic chemicals and prevent contamination of groundwater and the Columbia river.

Additionally, in 2014 Cantwell succeeded in passing legislation that preserved Hanford’s B Reactor as part of the Manhattan Project National Historical Park, as well as transferred 1,641 acres of land from the Hanford site to the Tri-Cities Development Council for use as an industrial park.

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