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Tri-Cities: An Island of Prosperity |
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Written On: November/December 2003 |
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Written By: by Paul Schlienz |
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Washington’s Tri-Cities – Richland, Kennewick and Pasco – are islands of prosperity in a sea of recession.
Located in a desert, blessed with both sunshine and a plentiful water supply, the Tri-Cities have survived boom and bust to build a dynamic economy.
Before 1943, Pasco (1940 population 3,913), Kennewick (1940 population 1,918) and Richland (1940 population 327) were agricultural towns at the confluence of the Columbia River and its tributaries, the Yakima and Snake, in southeastern Washington.
Then, in 1943, everything changed. In the midst of World War II, the federal government took over a great expanse of desert north of the Yakima and west of the Columbia. The entire population of Richland was evacuated.
No one outside the highest levels of the federal government knew at the time that the site, now called the Hanford Reservation, would produce plutonium for the bomb that would fall on Nagasaki in 1945.
Hanford swelled with workers during the war. An entirely new community was built on the old site of Richland for scientists, engineers and their families. Outside the Hanford Reservation, Pasco and Kennewick experienced tremendous growth, too. Indeed, by 1947, Richland’s population was 25,000, Pasco was home to 16,000 people, and Kennewick had grown to 15,000.
After the war, plutonium production continued at Hanford. The region also received a common identity when, in 1947, the Tri-City Herald, an upstart daily newspaper, began serving Richland, Pasco and Kennewick.
Herald publisher Glenn Lee ultimately teamed up with Richland Chamber of Commerce president Sam Volpentest, a friend of Washington’s powerful U.S. Senators Warren G. Magnuson and Henry “Scoop” Jackson. In 1963, while there was talk of closing Hanford, Lee and Volpentest formed the Tri-Cities Nuclear Industrial Council to keep Hanford open and diversify the Tri-Cities economy.
Thanks in large part to the lobbying of Lee and Volpentest, Hanford remained open and expanded its mission into areas such as commercial nuclear power. The two community boosters also used their government contacts to build much of the infrastructure that has led to the more economically diversified Tri-Cities of today.
“We got the Interstate highway to come here,” remembers Volpentest, who is still an active promoter of the Tri-Cities at age 99. “We had to pay $50,000 in legal fees to get it re-routed here. If you’re not on the Interstate, you’re just a forgotten community.”
Lee and Volpentest also lobbied hard for the Columbia and Snake River dams. Thanks to the dams, this desert region now blooms with agriculture, and the Tri-Cities have become an important inland port for barge traffic.
The Tri-Cities went through tough times in the 1980s when two nuclear reactors under construction by the Washington Public Power and Supply System (WPPSS) were mothballed due to massive cost overruns.
Only one commercial nuclear reactor, the Columbia Basin Generating Station, remains in service, operated by WPPSS’s successor, Energy Northwest. Energy Northwest recently considered completing one of the unfinished reactors, but ultimately decided against doing so. In part, the reactor’s outmoded design ruled against it.
As other uses of Hanford wound down, the focus turned to cleaning up radioactive waste, especially that which had leaked from tanks into groundwater. Ultimately, the Department of Energy (DOE) settled on a plan to vitrify or turn the waste into glass for burial in Nevada. The Tri-Cities are now reaping a boom based on the construction of a vitrification plant.
“There are approximately 10,000 employees on the Hanford site,” Judy Connell, of Fluor Hanford observed. Fluor, DOE’s prime contractor for the cleanup, employees 4,300 of Hanford’s workers. Other Hanford workers are employed by Bechtel, CH2MHill and Energy Northwest.
Hanford workers are well paid. In Richland alone, the per capita income is 20 percent above the regional and national average. Not surprisingly, these workers are having a massive impact on the Tri-Cities economy.
“Probably 40 percent of what’s spent in the Tri-Cities comes from the Hanford workforce,” Connell added.
Nevertheless, Tri-Citians have seen too many Hanford booms turn to bust to rest on their laurels.
“It takes thousands of people to build a vitrification plant, but it will take 300 to 400 people to operate that thing when it’s completed in 2008-2009,” Pasco city manager Gary Crutchfield said. “What we have to do is to try to weather that transition without too much negative effect.”
Already, the Tri-Cities are laying the foundation for a more economically diversified future.
In Richland, DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (PNNL), operated by Batelle, is pursuing research into energy, basic science, national security and environmental issues.
“In the last fiscal year, we’ve had $55.5 million worth of business at the lab,” stated PNNL’s Susan Bauer. “PNNL also has an economic development office, which, during 2002, helped create, recruit or expand six local businesses that employ 100 people. These businesses are in information technology, manufacturing and agritechnology.”
Also in Richland is the Volpentest Hazardous Materials Management and Emergency Response (HAMMER) Training Center. Owned by DOE and operated by Fluor, HAMMER trains emergency response workers. In the post-September 11 era, HAMMER has moved into Homeland Security-oriented work, including training U.S. border guards. HAMMER also serves clients from as far away as India and the former Soviet Union.
Near Kennewick, Energy Northwest’s Nine Canyon Wind Project is the largest publicly owned wind power project in the U.S. With 37 turbines, each capable of producing 1.3 megawatts, expansion is already under way for this clean, renewable energy project.
A bountiful agricultural sector with irrigated and dry land farming is one of the Tri-Cities’ greatest assets. Among the regions crops are wheat, alfalfa, potatoes, and fruit. Located in the heart of Washington’s wine growing region, the area’s wineries are world renowned and a major tourist attraction.
Of the Tri-Cities, Richland (2000 population 38,708) is probably the most unique due to its close connection with the Manhattan Project and Hanford. Following 1945, Richland remained part of the Hanford Reservation and was the exclusive domain of scientists, engineers and their families. It was only in 1958 that Richland was finally transferred from the Atomic Energy Commission to private landowners and allowed to incorporate as a city.
Including PNNL, Richland represents approximately 41 percent of the Tri-Cities’ economic base. Always known for its highly educated population, Richland is now home to Washington State University-Tri-Cities and Columbia Basin Community College.
In Pasco (2000 population 32,066), the oldest of the Tri-Cities, the pre-Manhattan Project era can clearly be sensed. A traditional downtown with storefronts and an old-fashioned Franklin County Court House harken back to the early 20th century.
“Pasco is the transportation hub of the area,” Crutchfield observed. “We’ve got the airport, and the highways and railroads all converge in Pasco.”
Pasco has historically been driven by agriculture and the railroad. However, with the construction of Interstate 182, Pasco became more connected to the Hanford portion of the Tri-Cities economy.
Among Pasco’s most important employers are Lampson International, a major crane manufacturer; and the Twin City Foods processing plant. Pasco is also home to many small businesses ranging from farm equipment to machine shops.
Leaving Pasco and crossing the Columbia River’s Ed Hendler Memorial Bridge, a beautiful concrete cable stay span, one arrives in Kennewick (population 54,693). Thanks to the Columbia Center Mall, Kennewick has become the retail hub of the Tri-Cities. With the 74,000 square foot Tri-Cities Convention Center to open in Kennewick in 2004, the region is set to become even more of a focal point for tourism and conventions.
“The Tri-Cities have a variety of lodgings ranging from bed-and-breakfasts to inns to full service convention hotels,” said Kris Watkins, president of the Tri-Cities Convention and Visitor Bureau. “We cater to everything from leisure travel to larger groups.”
Central to the Tri-Cities tourist appeal is 300 days of sunshine per year, 10 golf courses and beautiful rivers whose banks are being enhanced with parks and an extensive trail system. Romantic dinner boats float down the lazy rivers each evening. Jet boats ferry sightseers just north of the Tri-Cities into the Hanford Reach National Monument, a land of spectacular desert scenery with the last free flowing stretch of the Columbia River between Grand Coulee and Bonneville Dam.
Sports enthusiasts love the Tri-Cities. Tournaments of all descriptions have been attracted to the area’s great facilities.
Former Hanford workers and many other retirees have found the Tri-Cities an excellent place to spend their golden years. With first rate shopping, excellent medical services, low housing costs, and a mild climate, the Tri-Cities retirement community is steadily growing.
Although the Tri-Cities area includes the three main cities plus West Richland (2000 population 8,385), two counties and three port districts, the region is a model of close cooperation in pursuit of common goals.
“We in the Tri-Cities have a vision of where we’re going in the future,” Watkins concluded. “It’s a vision that encompasses education, tourism, agriculture and our scientific community all working together to accomplish the vision. There is a master plan here.”
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