The rare 2026 issue that draws huge support from Republicans and Democrats in Congress is the same one that’s mobilized many Americans: restrictions on giant data centers. 

Bonneville Power Administration is seeking to collect an additional $125 million from its ratepayers over the next two years, reportedly to recover its costs in meeting a court order to spill more water from its hydroelectric dams. 

The system that pretreats hazardous tank waste at the Hanford site before it can be transformed into glass is back online after a more than six-month shutdown. 

The city of Connell will receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in financing from the state to repair its wastewater treatment lagoons and prevent environmental contamination. 

A tribal site sacred to the Yakama Nation near the John Day hydroelectric dam isn’t the only land associated with tribal communities around the nation being eyed by data center developers. 

When power lines are blamed for starting a wildfire, costs to utilities can stretch into the billions and trickle down to consumers. 

Hanford has restarted a key certification process for shipping radioactive waste to a New Mexico disposal site, after a years-long pause.

Wildland fires have damaged several areas along the Snake River, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Walla Walla District to warn hunters and other visitors that some areas may be unsafe this fall. 

The last weeks of summer find much of the Northwest experiencing historic drought causing water supply shortages for public water and electric utilities, costing farmers tens of millions of dollars in lost crops and leaving vegetation and soils dry and susceptible to fires. 

The state Department of Ecology’s Washington Conservation Corps is currently recruiting AmeriCorps members to fill 260 positions across the state.