Tri-Cities Washington
The City of Kennewick is located in Eastern Washington State along the great Columbia River. It is one of three cities known collectively as the Tri-Cities (Richland and Pasco are the other two). There are also other smaller towns that connect to our greater area, including the fast growing city of West Richland.
The combined population of the Tri-Cities is approximately 270,000. Three major rivers (Columbia, Yakima, and Snake) converge near the Tri-Cities. Despite the plentiful river water, our area is desert-like with 6’’- 8” of total rainfall per year.
Business & Local Economy
Agriculture is big business in our area including row crops, dry land wheat, fruit (including apples and cherries, among others), and grapes. Our local produce is shipped globally.
Washington has some of the best vineyards and wineries in the world and what a great value they are! Columbia Crest and Barnard Griffin are just two of my many favorites with many, many wineries to tour right in our town.
The surrounding mountains (we think of them as hills), Yakima Valley, and Walla Walla regions offer the wine enthusiast a mecca for quality and value.
There are many specialty companies located in the Tri-Cities. Once such company, Lampson International LLC, is a worldwide leader in the heavy lift industry. We are fortunate to have such a world leader located in our town.
Lampson International is a provider of rigging and heavy lift (some of the largest in the world) services and also manufactures a series of heavy lift cranes known as Transi-Lifts. You can often see one these huge, mobile moving cranes (along with many others in their fleet) at the Port of Pasco.
Transi-Lifts have lift capacities from 400 to 4,000 tons! It is amazing to look at one or see one moving with it’s crawlers and load!
A Transi-Lift is pictured above, this photo taken in the Port of Pasco. The weight of the cement blocks above the Lampson name is counter weight for the load that will be carried by the crane. The weight of the single bottom right cement block is 71,180 pounds!
Located near the Tri-Cities is the Hanford Project, another major employer in our area. The original objective of the Hanford Project was the production of plutonium. 9 reactors were built at the Hanford Project to support the objective of plutonium projection.
The production of plutonium created millions of gallons of radioactive waste. The Hanford Vit Plant, the world’s largest radioactive waste treatment plant, is now under construction in our area.
The Hanford Site is now a center for a wide variety of businesses and research facilities. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is one of ten U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) national laboratories managed by DOE’s Office of Science. PNNL has been operated by Battelle (the world’s largest independent scientific and technology development organization) since 1965.
Research is conducted in our area by world-renowned scientists and engineers in many areas including: terrorism prevention, cyber security, energy research on hydrogen and bio-mass fuels, and many other programs.
Tri-Cities Summary
The Tri-Cities is a vibrant community with many opportunities! The mild (for the most part) winters, warm summer weather, sunny days, three rivers, parks, local produce, community and branch campus colleges, entertainment, and great people make for a wonderful place to live.