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Agenda 2002: A to-do list for the Tri-Cities

Published Jan. 1-2, 2002

In the Mid-Columbia this New Year's Day, we should count our blessings - and then get busy.

While the Northwest and our nation struggle through recession, the Mid-Columbia seems to be an island of relative economic prosperity. While state employment is contracting, the Tri-City area has been adding jobs and has prospects for more. Housing starts are steady and some retailers report a better Christmas season than expected.

The Mid-Columbia is lucky, but it must be remembered much of this prosperity comes from Hanford - a job-creator that eventually will contract, not expand. Our vigilant efforts now when times are good can help inoculate our community against extreme adversity.

Today and Wednesday, the Herald editorial board offers its perspective on the most pressing tasks for the Mid-Columbia. This year's list seems to focus around two themes, the economy and the environment. Today, we'll focus on the economy.

Continue economic diversification efforts for after Hanford

Our relative prosperity must not distract us from the decades-long goal of diversifying our economy from its historic - and continued - dependence on federal funding.

One in seven of the Tri-City area's nonfarm jobs continue to be directly or indirectly related to Hanford. If Hanford cleanup is successful, most of its jobs will disappear from our region eventually, barring some other federal role. While cleanup is expected to take decades, it will not always require the present work force level.

We cannot let a strong local economy dissuade us from pushing hard to attract new industries and expand existing businesses not related to Hanford.

Leaders in business and government must redouble their efforts to work together to keep our community in fighting shape. We must focus on enhancing our competitiveness in the areas that businesses like - an available, affordable work force, responsive city and county government and a good quality of life. That means supporting schools, expanding higher education opportunities, nurturing the arts and maintaining a thriving transit agency and a health department with adequate resources and staffing.

Additionally, our community needs to bolster its leadership outside the Hanford ranks. We have relied too much on the resources of Hanford contractors - both their personnel and generous community contributions - which ultimately will disappear or virtually depart at cleanup's conclusion.

An example of that reliance is this year's United Way of Benton and Franklin Counties' impressively successful fund-raising campaign. While many United Way agencies in other communities suffered, our United Way raised a record $4.65 million. About half of that was raised by Hanford contractors and employees.

Certainly, our community should be grateful for these contributions and capitalize on them, but we must also prepare for the day when they begin to wane.

Ensure critical Hanford vitrification plant is funded and built

Hanford cleanup is critical to the future of the Mid-Columbia, and its key is the Hanford Waste Vitrification Project.

Construction on the $4 billion plant that will turn liquid radioactive waste into stable glass logs was supposed to have started by July 31, but now may not start until late this year. Energy Department officials say they can still meet the legal deadline of 2007 to produce the first glass log.

So far, the new Bush administration has been somewhat noncommital about the vitrification plant. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham actually argued for less vitrification money than necessary for the current budget year but Congress restored funding to adequate levels.

Abraham says he's waiting for the results of a "top-down" review of his agency's nuclear cleanup programs before he reveals too much. One Energy Department official floated a startling memo that called for reducing the amount of waste planned for vitrification by 75 percent - something that rankled the Hanford Advisory Board and prompted Washington Gov. Gary Locke two weeks ago to vow to hold the federal government to its promises.

Abraham insists he's looking for ways to speed cleanup while reducing costs - an objective with which no one should argue.

Nevertheless, the vitrification plant must not be derailed. The Department of Energy must tackle the 53 million gallons of waste sitting in aging tanks at Hanford.

Time is of the essence. Abraham needs to respect his federal and state partners in cleanup oversight, reveal the results of his cleanup program review quickly and articulate his policy changes, if any. He must also renew the agency's commitment to building Hanford's vitrification plant and ensure it has adequate federal funding.

Hanford has, in the past, helped the Tri-Cities grow and prosper - but not without a "glow-in-the-dark" reputation. We should not allow a level of cleanup that fails to restore most of the land - and to remove the reputation.

Enhance Mid-Columbia education system birth through college

The Mid-Columbia is blessed with some fine public and private schools, which include Columbia Basin College and a branch campus of Washington State University.

These key assets must be enhanced for our community's future success. That means renovating aging schools in Richland, encouraging literacy at all ages, fostering more job training and improving the opportunities for place-bound Tri-Citians to earn four-year college degrees.

While officials for CBC and WSU Tri-Cities continue to work toward making the transition between the two schools seamless, there is more to be done. A community development soul-searching exercise suggested one intriguing idea that bears exploration: Why not develop a four-year residential college from the educational infrastructure already here?

Certainly, that would help current residents expand their education and job skills, while attracting others to our community. And it would also attract more businesses that want the synergy of a vibrant higher education institution.

A sound education system from birth to graduate school is something our community should strive for.

Salmon recovery: Keep it up

Salmon recovery poses a lesser threat to the Pacific Northwest's economy at the start of 2002 than it did just a year ago, but this region still can ill afford to let its efforts slide.

Gone is the panic that once characterized the effort to save fish stocks. Instead, the region has record runs of fish, a new administration in the White House, a National Marine Fisheries Service that is thinking twice about how it determines the health of fish runs and the Army Corps of Engineers' conclusion last year that the best way to improve the health of Snake River salmon and steelhead is to make major improvements to dams, not breach them.

But now is not the time to lose valuable momentum that was built back when salmon recovery was a threat the federal government held over the region's head. No matter how NMFS counts the fish, there still are going to be some stocks that need help. And progress made now, in a cooperative fashion, can stave off more dire steps that could arrive with shifting political winds.

Westerners may rail against government by mandate, but they will have little to complain about if their inaction makes a case for federal action being the only way to achieve salmon recovery.

Water storage: Drought or no drought

A rainy winter could wash away the imperative for pursuing more water storage in the state, but policy makers shouldn't let it go so easily.

Last year's drought - one of the worst on record - dramatically highlighted the need for more storage, especially in the water-short Yakima Basin where no new storage has been built in 60 years. But with the chance for a repeat next summer appearing slimmer every day and the state facing an economic crisis, the outlook for real progress is not promising.

A new reservoir cannot wait. It will take years to research an appropriate site, complete construction and fill the reservoir. The state should be planning now for the next water crisis.

What's more, water storage should be a key element of this region's measures to help rebuild fish runs. Together with such efforts as the Kennewick Irrigation District moving its water withdrawal point from the Yakima River to the Columbia, a new reservoir would be instrumental in ensuring enough water for fish in the Yakima during dry summer months.

It's a drive that everyone concerned with sound water management - from irrigators to environmentalists to government officials - can get behind.

Hanford Reach: The year to chart its future

The coming year is essential for realizing the promise of the Hanford Reach National Monument.

The year-old monument won the largest operating budget increase in the history of the National Wildlife Refuge System last month - giving it a new budget of $1.18 million. The boost from the original operating budget of $571,000 was taken as a sign the Bush administration is supporting in a big way local folks' efforts to shape the future of the Reach.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has directed $100,000 to an advisory committee that includes regional, state and local voices to help craft a management plan. Much of that work had stalled for lack of money.

Now it should get back on track pronto. Protection of the Reach long was delayed by the effort to make sure locals would have a say. Now this community has as good a chance of influencing that perspective as it will get under federal control. We must take advantage of this administration's friendly overtures to ensure the monument will be an asset to the community as well as the country.