EWU Historians Chronicle Downwinder Experiences

Eastern students are working to shed light on an important, but often overlooked part of The Manhattan Project’s nuclear past: the stories of Washington’s Hanford Downwinders.

With funding from the EWU Eagle Grants program and additional support from the U.S. National Park Service, Eastern history students have researched and published articles about the experiences of people who lived and worked “downwind” of the Hanford nuclear production site. During its 40 years of operation, many of these workers and area residents were exposed to the potentially unhealthy levels of radiation that emanated from the site. 

The articles will be one part of The Manhattan Project’s National Historical Park, which spans across three U.S. locations in Washington, Tennessee, and New Mexico.

“Our collaboration with Eastern is vitally important to learning more about the Manhattan Project and sharing these stories with people around the world,” says Becky Burghart, Hanford National Historical Park site manager. “Eastern Washington University professors and students bring talent, experience and professionalism to the research they conduct into the lesser-known histories of the Manhattan Project.”

Because Hanford and the other sites are not traditional parks—and visitation is limited—these articles will serve as an important tool for those seeking information about the sites’ histories. 

“Without [the students’] work, these stories would continue to be hidden away in archives,” adds Burghart. “Their work brings these stories into the public sphere and adds to our collective understanding of the Manhattan Project.”

Ann Le Bar is the EWU professor of history who is coordinating students’ work on the project. “Hundreds of oral histories from Native Americans, Hispanic farm workers and small-town Eastern Washington residents are giving student researchers a glimpse into how Hanford’s nuclear waste permanently harmed their health and disrupted their lives,” she says.

One of the student researchers, Saul Bautista, a former McNair scholar who is now an EWU alumnus, worked on the project prior to his graduation. Bautista focused his research on Bracero Project workers—Mexican laborers who were employed under federal permits to work on farmland in the Hanford area. Because of their long hours outdoors, Braceros had some of the highest levels of exposure to Hanford’s radiation. But neither they nor their fellow downwinders were warned about the toxic waste products in the air, in the river and in their food.

“These articles tell the stories of Hanford’s lasting environmental legacy,” says Le Bar.

The Manhattan Project itself marked the beginning of the nuclear age, as the United States rushed to build the world’s first atomic bomb during World War II. Three top-secret U.S. sites soon emerged to produce nuclear materials. One of them was located in Hanford, Washington.

Hundreds of Native Americans and farmers were displaced in order for the government to build the Hanford Engineer Works site. And by 1944, nearly 50,000 employees were living and working at the site.

Workers at Hanford produced and operated the nation’s first nuclear reactors, which made the plutonium used in the Trinity test and the atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki in World War II. The Hanford plant went on to produce most of the plutonium in the U.S.’s nuclear arsenal. 

While the United States was focused on nuclear warfare, little thought was given to potential health consequences for workers who helped produce the weapons material, nor to other area residents who might have been exposed to the site’s radioactive waste. 

“The downwinders are a cross-section of the people who lived in the area in the 1950s and 60s,” says Le Bar. “The downwinders got their name because they lived downriver or downwind of Hanford.”

As World War II waned, serious health problems for the downwinders emerged. Women, in particular, struggled with fertility and miscarriages. The rate of infant death was 20% higher in the Hanford area than the national average during these years. Incidences of thyroid disease, including thyroid cancers, and autoimmune issues were also concerningly common. 

Not even animals were immune. “Monstrously looking sheep were born,” says Le Bar. “Lambs were born with fused legs and no eyes. There was no question that this was the result of [Hanford’s] waste products, which were spewed into the air and dumped into the water pretty much without any limitations.”

“Leaks from the tanks could get into the soil and then later the Columbia River,” she adds.

Into the late 1960s, Washington state officials warned fishermen at the mouth of the Columbia River not to harvest shellfish because of possible contamination. And to this day, says Le Bar, “Almost none of [Hanford’s] toxic waste has been removed.” 

Even here in Washington, this particular part of our state’s history is not well known. 

This is one reason Julianna Amante, a senior history major, wanted to research and write about the downwinders. “I’ve lived in the Inland Northwest for most of my life and had no idea what Hanford was and how it affected my family,” says Amante. “Being a part of this conversation means that more people are aware of the radiation releases at Hanford and are aware of the role the Department of Energy had in its cover up.”

Her particular article, featured on the National Park Service’s website, focuses on one downwinder and activist who fought for information and justice, while battling her own fertility issues and thyroid disease. 

 “This isn’t just a school project,” says Amante. “This is personal to me and everyone who lives here.”

If you’d like to visit Hanford’s historic B-Reactor, the U.S. Department of Energy offers free public tours open to all ages. Tours last four hours and begin at 8:30 a.m. or 11:45 a.m. depending on the date you choose. Click here to select a date and begin the registration process. 

To learn more about the Hanford downwinders and The Manhattan Project National Historical Park, visit the National Park Service website. To read John Allison’s article, click on this link; Issac Olson and John Allison’s can be found here; Saul Bautista’s article is here; and to read EWU alumni, Greta Helfenstein, Tim Harrington and Ethan Ross’s article, click on this link.