July 19, 2001
Administrative Control of the Hanford Reach National Monument
In January 1997, the Office of Inspector General issued Report DOE/IG-0399, Audit of the U.S. Department of Energy's Identification and Disposal of Nonessential Land, which identified approximately 138,000 acres of land at the Hanford Site which were not essential to carrying out the Department of Energy's (Department) mission. In June 2000, the President created the 195,000 acre Hanford Reach National Monument (Monument) within the boundaries of the Department's Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. Although the Department maintains administrative control and jurisdiction over the land within the Monument, the Department of Interior's U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages about 84 percent of the land. The objective of the audit was to determine if the Department should retain administrative control of the land within the Monument.
