Hazardous Waste Site | Tri-Cities, WA | 1940s to Present
The Hanford Nuclear Site is located in eastern Washington State, and encompasses more than 500 square miles of land. For nearly 30 years, The U.S. Department of Defense and the Department of Energy produced tons of plutonium for use in the atomic weapon program.
On March 24, 1989 the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Alaska, spilling 11 million gallons of oil. The ecologically sensitive location, season of the year, and large scale of this spill resulted in one of the largest environmental disasters in U.S. history.
The container ship M/V Cosco Busan struck one of the towers of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge on the morning of November 7, 2007. The impact tore a large gash in the hull of the vessel, releasing 53,000 gallons of fuel oil into the water.
