Oregon Public Broadcasting

At the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, federal contractors are building a massive water treatment plant to stop contaminated groundwater from migrating toward the Columbia River. Correspondent Anna King attended the construction kick-off for the new plant.

The federal government is so proud of the groundwater treatment plant it's building, it set up a stage in bleak Central Hanford complete with speakers blaring the music of Kenny G.

Top federal and state officials bused way out here to celebrate the $174 million plant.

When it's done in two years the system will pump and flush contaminated water.

John Lehew is the president of the federal contractor building the plant, CH2M HILL.

John Lehew: “Treating that 24 billion gallons over the life of this project would be like pumping and treating an Olympic sized swimming pool, 400 feet under the ground, cycling it through miles of piping, treating it and pumping it back into the ground, four times a day for the next 25 years.”

Lehew says the system will extract caustic solvents and radioactive byproducts dumped here when Hanford was producing plutonium for bombs.