Other facilities we oversee
Our Nuclear Waste Program also oversees several other facilities in Washington that aren't part of the Hanford cleanup.
Click on the tabs to find out more about the facilities, and read about the US Ecology disposal site below.
Worker surveying containers at US Ecology.
US Ecology is a disposal facility that is licensed by the state of Washington to receive commercial low-level radioactive waste. Located in the center of the Hanford Site, the facility operates on 100 acres of land leased to the state by the federal government.
Model Toxics Control Act study
The older parts of the facility contain chemical waste that was intermingled with radioactive waste before chemical waste was regulated and disposal practices were changed. An investigation under the Model Toxics Control Act, Washington’s environmental cleanup law, has been underway since 1999 to study the extent of the site's contamination, and to develop a remedial action to protect people's health and the environment.
As we investigate chemical contamination at the site, we're coordinating with the state Department of Health to put a protective cover on older trenches that have been filled and are no longer being used for disposal.
The US Ecology site is a radioactive, non-dangerous waste landfill that has been in operation since 1965. Before 1993, the landfill accepted low-level radioactive waste from across the United States.
Since that time, the facility has restricted disposal to waste originating in the eight states of the Northwest Interstate Compact (Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming) and the three states of the Rocky Mountain Compact (Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico). The Washington State Department of Health oversees operations and facility closure.
The Columbia Generating Station is located on land leased at the Hanford Site and is the Northwest’s only nuclear energy facility. The plant consists of a boiling water reactor and uses nuclear fission to heat water into high-pressure steam.
Perma-Fix Northwest is a waste storage and treatment facility specializing in treating low-level and mixed low-level waste. All waste that enters the facility is stored and/or treated, then shipped off-site for further treatment or disposal. The processes used at Perma-Fix Northwest are designed to perform treatment of waste or volume reduction through mechanical processes.
We oversee the RCRA permit and regulate the mixed waste stored and treated at the facility, consisting of waste from Hanford and other in-state or out-of-state mixed waste generators.
We oversee the permit for storage of dangerous and mixed waste at the U.S. Navy's Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton, Washington. The shipyard is a home port for both active and inactive vessels, and is used to maintain, overhaul, decommission, and dismantle vessels in service of the United States Navy.
Photo courtesy Puget Sound Naval Shipyard.
Dangerous and mixed waste is generated during laboratory analysis, on-site demolition, and from production work including removal and installation of components on vessels, on-vessel and off-vessel repair of components, and the decommissioning and dismantling of vessels.
Stay informed
Related links
- How is low-level waste disposal managed and regulated in the region?
- Radiation Control Program history
US Ecology:
Contact information
Alicia Boyd
US Ecology
hanford@ecy.wa.gov
509-372-7950
John Temple
Columbia Generating Station, Perma-Fix Northwest, and Puget Sound Naval Shipyard
hanford@ecy.wa.gov
509-372-7950