August 23 Meeting Notes
"National Sponge Cake Day"
Meeting Leader - Robin
Invocation - Milt Herman
Welcome guests: Allen Blackmon
Welcome Rotary Guests: Brian Brennan - Confluence, Mark Kulaas - Wenatchee
Announcements
Little Essentials Food Basket - We are still accepting shelf stable and canned food items. Robin will pick up the donations at each meeting.
August 23rd at 5:30 - Putting Bike Ride goodie bags together at Alan and Kelly's clubhouse
- Address: 1310 Castlerock Ave - Heatherwood Condo's
- Bring appetizers
- BYOB
- Bring swimsuits
Rotary Leadership Institute Training - 9/17/2022 to 9/18/2022
- 7 more people are needed to fill the class
- The class will be cancelled if Wenatchee cannot get enough students
- The instructors are coming from Canada
New Badge's
- Robin showed mockups of the new rectangular shaped badges
- The layout will be finalized soon
- There will be magnetic and pin on options
Committee's
- Committee handouts were passed around to everyone in attendance
- Each sheet has the names of the volunteers and detailed explanations about the expectations of the group
- Contact Robin for information about your committee
Karen the Clipboard - There is now a tab for each upcoming event
- 8/23 Goodie bag set up for Apple Century Bike Ride, 5:30 pm
- RLI - Sept 17 and 18
Brags and Confessions - Postponed allowing 2 programs for the day
Program - Peace Pole and Pickleball Court Project
Brian Brennan Mark Kulaas
Confluence Rotary Wenatchee Rotary
The Wenatchee Peace Pole project is part of the Global Peace Pole Initiative.
The initiative began in Japan in the 1950's. There now more than 250,000 locations.
Wenatchee is working on the project with the P'squosa/Wenatchi tribe to design something that represents our area.
The project includes Basalt Columns, pathways that represent the Columbia and Wenatchee Rivers, and each "river" (walkway) will have Salmon inlays.
There will be the phrase "May Peace Prevail on Earth" at the site. The phrase will be displayed in four languages:
- Southern Interior Salish
- Japanese
- Spanish
- English
There are a number of people working on the project. Terry Valdez from Terry Valdez Studios is working on the design. Terry is currently the featured artist at Pybus Market in the hallway leading to the conference room we use on Tuesday mornings.
There is still time to purchase a place to add your dedication to a tile, a Salmon, a column, or a bench. Just fill out the form available at each meeting and get it to the committee using the information at the bottom of the form.
September 21st, World Peace Day will be celebrated at Rotary Park at 5pm. Come and see the project for yourself and check out your dedication.
Program - Ginger Wireman - Community Outreach & Environmental Education Specialist WA State Dept. of Ecology - Nuclear Waste Program
Ginger joined via Zoom for the presentation. Ginger has been with the Dept of Ecology (DOE) for 21 years.
The DOE has a channel on YouTube. Search on "Let's talk about Hanford"
Click the link below to see an introduction.
There are videos on topics such as:
- Geology
- Wildlife
- Fisheries
- History
- Annual updates
Wildlife
There are many species of wildlife on the site. There are a large number of elk for example.
Recently scientists have identified new species never seen anywhere else.
Websites
Hanford Site - Pre 1942
The area was previously a location for Wanapum Villages.
The site had 700 square miles of land, access to clean water, power, and railways.
The government chose the site to participate in the development of the first nuclear bomb. Once the site was chosen, everyone living in the area was given only 30 days to gather their belongings and vacate their homes.
A request for employees to join the war effort was sent out across the country. 50,000 people were hired. They were separated by race and sex and assigned duties. Less than 5% of the people knew what they were there to develop.
The area provided housing (some still standing in Richland today), 5 mess halls, bowling alleys, and other services to support the team.
The purpose and location were made public after the bombs were dropped on Japan.
Timeline for the Site
1945 - 1988 - Production
The site was in production from 1945 to 1988. Several reactors and testing locations were built on the site. The site was under the control of the "Depart of the Army".
The 9 original reactors produced plutonium, not energy. All 9 have been shut down and are now part of the cleanup effort.
Washington State's only nuclear power plant operates on Hanford land. It is regulated by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), not the DOE. It is not owned by the DOE.
1989 - Site Clean Up Becomes a Concern
Concerns over the waste being created and stored on the site created the need for an oversight committee.
The oversight committee has been in effect since 1989, however recently the DOE has implemented term limits so 24 senior members with significant knowledge of the site have been replaced.
The Department of Ecology takes over responsibility for the Site. The EPA is assigned to take care of the radioactive materials.
1990's - Clean Up Begins - Most of the nation's waste is stored at Hanford
- 2400 waste sites identified
- 177 tanks - 28 double shell and 149 single shell (~67 have leaked)
- 56,000,000 gallons of mixed high-level waste (60% of nations total)
- 80 miles of the river exposed
- 67 known tank leaks have occurred to date
- 190,000 tons of chemically hazardous waste
- Waste has been retrieved from 15 of 149 single-shell tanks
- Waste treatment plant well underway
- Complete groundwater remediation along the Columbia River by 2024
Cleanup Accomplishments to Date
- Removed 14 million tons of contaminated soil from the riverbank
- Removed most pumpable liquids from 149 single-shell tanks
- Expanded pump & treat capacity to decrease containment spread to protect the Columbia River
Cleanup Challenges
- Federal budget
- Total cost projected = $114,000,000,000
- Budget based on "Risk reduction per dollar spent"
- How does Hanford rank vs other priorities?
- Tribal Treaty obligations (3 tribes)
- Why is it taking so long? (70+ years)
- USDOE plant work
- regulatory agencies approve plans
- USDOE does work per plans
- regulatory agencies oversee work
- USDOE reports work
- Regulatory agencies check report, modify recommendations and may request further work
- All regulations have the same goal
- Protect human health and the environment
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Just a Thought
Fear leads us to trade life for existence.
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No one won the raffle this week.
Upcoming Events
Aug 27th - Pool party at Wayne Massing's home. 2pm to 5pm Bring appetizers that can be outside in the heat, swimsuits
Aug 30th - Wayne Steele Classification Talk
September 7 - 11 - Bike Ride Setup (9/7 - 9/9), Race Day (9/10), Race Clean Up (9/11)
Sept 20th - Glenn King Classification Talk
September 21 - World Peace Day at Rotary Park at 5:00
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JOKE: What do you call a cow with 2 legs...lean beef.
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