The U.S. Department of Energy has signed off on allowing radioactive tank waste to be introduced into the Direct-Feed Low-Activity Waste (DFLAW) facility at the Hanford site, according to Sen. Patty Murray.

Northwest states, tribes and environmental groups will resume suing the federal government over its hydroelectric dam operations in the Columbia River Basin that have harmed endangered native fish species. 

Gov. Bob Ferguson didn’t mince words during a Sept. 12 press conference in Kennewick: if the Waste Treatment Plant at the Hanford site does not begin treating waste by Oct. 15, the state will pursue legal action to bring the facility online and the state will win. 

The early shutoff has implications for the late harvest crops of the Roza Irrigation District. About two-thirds of the district’s crops, such as apples and wine grapes, are harvested after Sept. 15.

Several technologies developed at or in partnership with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Richland will receive part of $35 million in federal funding to move them to the marketplace. 

The owners of a Walla Walla gas station must pay millions of dollars in penalties and restitution for a 2023 gasoline leak that led to the evacuation of the historic Marcus Whitman Hotel and contaminated groundwater. 

A billion-dollar, taxpayer-funded enterprise to kickstart a clean hydrogen industry in the Pacific Northwest took another hit due to energy companies getting cold feet. 

The Forest Service claims it recently reached 99% of its firefighting hiring goal, with almost 11,300 wildland firefighters. But a recent ProPublica investigation and internal communications obtained by High Country News paint a grimmer picture than what the public is seeing. 

Washington state Department of Ecology’s Washington Conservation Corps is recruiting young adults ages 18-25 and military veterans or those with a sensory or mental disability of any age to fill more than 250 positions across the state. 

The Corps of Engineers has issued a five-year construction license to the Benton Conservation District for a $1.2 million project to improve fish habitat.