The Hanford site, a nuclear weapons production complex in Benton County, Wash., produced 56 million gallons of radioactive waste. Needing to get rid of it, the company began to dump it into the Columbian
River.
Senior Caleb Roher became concerned after
learning that the waste could be in the food and drinks he consumes.
“It’s the circle of life, plants drink water, pigs and cows eat plants, then we eat them. I didn’t want my food to be contaminated,” Roher said.
Terrified about the contaminated substances, Roher researched and found out about the SANFREEZE organization. SANFREEZE targets nuclear production complexes and protests against
the dumping of radioactive waste.
In order to get a better understanding of SANFREEZE, Roher interviewed Albert LePage, who was one of the leaders of the Oregon charter. Roher described LePage as the most passionate man he had ever
met.
“You could just see the fire in his eyes that this still bothers him till this day.” Roher said.
LePage described the different protests he led to Roher.
“Al got 20,000 signatures petitioning against dumping nuclear waste into the Columbian River. The Oregon Charter as well as one million people held a march in New York.” Roher said.
After many demonstrations and petitions, the government agreed to shut down the Hanford site to stop the dumping of toxic chemicals into the Columbia River.
SANFREEZE had won.
“Once I found out about the happy ending, I was relieved” Roher said.
Roher firmly believes that nuclear waste should not be inside our food supplies. He said that we as humans have a duty to uphold and protect our land.
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