Department of Energy (DoE) may be looking for payback when it asked the Richland City Council to approve the annexation of property that includes some highly contaminated pieces. In 2025 alone Richland sold almost $1.1 million of former DoE property. The city of Richland also collected about $300,000 in option payments for about $51 million of additional property given to the city by DoE.
DoE will still own the annexed area including the contaminated locations, but the city could be required to provide city services including infrastructure, fire and police protection. The city and DoE will hammer out the details.
According to the staff-written cover sheet that accompanies the agenda item, “If Council accepts the proposed annexation, additional steps will be required before final approval, including Planning Commission review, a public hearing, and subsequent consideration of an annexation ordinance.”
The council will vote on the first step, whether to proceed with the annexation process, at its 6 p.m. meeting Tuesday at Richland City Hall, The meeting can be seen live on Cable Channel 192 and on Richland City View.
A remodeled police station could provide room for expanded services.
The $51 million Richland could realize from the sale of land equals the amount the city plans to spend on remodeling a building at 1200 Jadwin to become a police station. With oodles of room there, police and fire services would have room to grow. Something that DoE officials may have noticed.
One company with a billionaire board member and one company that has never built anything have options on $51 million of former DoE property.
Washington Energy, a division of General Matter, a company that’s board includes billionaire Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, has a six-year option, approved by the Richland council on January 7, 2025, to purchase 425 acres of former DoE property. The company, plans to build a uranium enrichment plant and paid $50,000 for the initial option which escalates each year.
Atlas Agro, a Swiss company that has never built anything anywhere, paid the city $250,000 for a one-year option on a $24 million property where they plan to build a data center in the Horn Rapids area. The council approved the plan on December 2, 2025. The company can extend the option for another year for the same amount.
Which land does this letter refer to, that the City of Richland, Port of Benton and TRIDEC requested to be transferred from the DOE, so did the DOE give it to the three prior to the request? If they requested it and now have to get utility services there at our expense, why wasn’t this request made known the the taxpayer? The reason they requested it was to bring jobs to the area, as Hanford jobs decreased. How many permanent jobs is the area getting to replace jobs lost to skilled labor? https://www.tridec.org/wp-content/uploads/20150730115650203.pdf
Hi Renee, I appreciate your comment. This happened about 15 years ago. I checked the online city records for that year and nothing appeared. If you’re interested in the details, you’d need to make a public record request. I *suspect* that this is the property that is in the Horn Rapids Business Development area now. Thank you for reading the Observer. Randy