EPA picks new, local leader for Hanford oversight

The Environmental Protection Agency has picked an environmental engineer from its Hanford Project Office as the new Hanford program manager.

Dave Einan, who has worked in the EPA Hanford office since 1989 as a remedial project manager, will continue to be based in Richland.

“He brings extraordinary depth, experience and expertise to the position,” EPA said in a statement on Friday.

EPA is a Hanford nuclear reservation regulator and one of the three agencies that sets cleanup plans and deadlines for Hanford under the legally binding Tri-Party Agreement.

The Hanford EPA office in Richland also is responsible for oversight of the Department of Energy’s Idaho environmental cleanup project and some non-government Superfund sites in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Alaska.

EPA advertised the position in the fall for either Seattle or Richland, with the decision on where the new manager would be based to be made when a manager was selected.

The Hanford Advisory Board urged EPA to keep the manager in Richland, as had been the policy since Hanford environmental cleanup began after the end of the Cold War. Hanford is contaminated from the past production of plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program.

If the manager position had been moved to Seattle, that would leave just four people in the Richland office to assigned to keep an eye on Hanford.

The EPA Hanford program manager needs to be close to Hanford because of the need for prompt EPA investigation and response to unusual Hanford incidents, the board said in a letter to EPA in November.

The manager needs to maintain “a confident presence in the Tri-Cities to recognize and understand community and stakeholder environmental concerns,” the board said.

Einan’s previous work at Hanford has focused at various times on the cleanup of the Hanford 300 Area just north of Richland, the large central Hanford landfill for low level radioactive and hazardous chemical waste, and the Hanford 1100 Area in north Richland, which was turned over to the Port of Benton in the mid ’90s.

The position was open after Dennis Faulk retired after serving as manager since 2009.

This story was originally published January 26, 2018 at 11:18 AM with the headline "EPA picks new, local leader for Hanford oversight."