April 17, 2000: Farming Hanford could bring big bucks

Farming Hanford could bring big bucks

This story was published April 17, 2000
By Mike Lee
Herald staff writer

While the inventory of state farmland shrinks, it's possible that someday Hanford will blossom with fruit trees and row crops.

A report published in February by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland says large-scale farms there with high-value crops could generate more than $1 billion a year.

"External, formidable pressures will necessitate increasing investments in irrigation infrastructure in many areas of the world," said researchers from Washington State University, who compiled the report for PNNL and the Department of Energy.

And, they said, "the Hanford site has all the components that favor successful irrigated farming."

Hungry people could force large-scale farm investments in the Northwest by 2050, when site cleanup is supposed to be done. World population is expected to double to 12 billion people by then, "straining already stressed worldwide agricultural resources," according to the report.

With its proximity to one of the continent's largest rivers, good roads, power supply and processing plants, Hanford is deemed one of two "most likely areas for expanded irrigation in the Pacific Northwest."

The PNNL report looked at the results of farming 125,000 acres of the 586-square-mile site, a parcel equal to about a quarter of the irrigated lands in the Yakima Basin.

If the land were split equally among potatoes, apples and wine grapes, sales in today's dollars would be about $430 million, an estimate that doubled once researchers accounted for associated work such as processing.

Despite potential benefits, farming Hanford isn't a given.

For one thing, the environmentally sensitive Hanford Reach of the Columbia River is fiercely protected from development. And there's significant plant and animal habitat on other parts of the site.

Also, farmers would have to be careful about not using contaminated ground water from nuclear production or pushing underground radioactive plumes toward the river. That means top-flight irrigation equipment and close monitoring would be high priorities.

Also, the study noted, obtaining water rights - the subject of much consternation already - will be a "major issue."

The study did not directly tackle the potential public relations problems from farming what today is one of the most contaminated plots in the country.

But it did grant that, "Constraints to agricultural development of the Hanford site are political and social, not economic or technical."