Hanford Reach

Hanford Reach
River
A section of the Hanford Reach
Country	United States
State	Washington
Part of	the Columbia River
Source	Base of Priest Rapids Dam
- location	Near Desert Aire
- elevation	443 ft (135 m)
- coordinates	46°38′35″N 119°54′39″W
Mouth	Lake Wallula
- location	Richland
- elevation	340 ft (104 m)
- coordinates	46°16′46″N 119°16′03″W
Length	45 mi (72 km)
Basin	96,000 sq mi (248,639 km2)
Discharge	for below Priest Rapids Dam
- average	118,400 cu ft/s (3,353 m3/s)
- max	547,400 cu ft/s (15,501 m3/s)
- min	20,000 cu ft/s (566 m3/s)

The Hanford Reach is a free-flowing section of the Columbia River, about 45 miles (72 km) long, in eastern Washington state, named after a large northward bend in the river's otherwise southbound course. It is the only section of the Columbia in the U.S. that is not tidal and not part of a reservoir, excluding a short reach between the U.S.-Canada border and the upper end of Franklin Delano Roosevelt Lake, the reservoir of Grand Coulee Dam. Much of the Hanford Reach flows through the Hanford Site, a nuclear production facility that started during World War II. It is also the site of the Hanford Reach National Monument, created from the original protection area around the Hanford Site. Upstream of the Hanford Reach is Priest Rapids Dam and downstream is the McNary Dam, which also impounds the last stretch of the Snake River, the largest tributary of the Columbia.

External links

• U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Hanford Reach