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Wahluke Slope is a geographic feature in
Grant Grant or Grants may refer to: Places *Grant County (disambiguation) Australia * Grant, Queensland, a locality in the Barcaldine Region, Queensland, Australia United Kingdom * Castle Grant United States *Grant, Alabama * Grant, Inyo County, ...
,
Benton Benton may refer to: Places Canada *Benton, a local service district south of Woodstock, New Brunswick *Benton, Newfoundland and Labrador United Kingdom * Benton, Devon, near Bratton Fleming * Benton, Tyne and Wear United States *Benton, Alabam ...
and
Adams Adams may refer to: * For persons, see Adams (surname) Places United States *Adams, California *Adams, California, former name of Corte Madera, California *Adams, Decatur County, Indiana *Adams, Kentucky *Adams, Massachusetts, a New England town ...
Counties of
Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Ha ...
. It is a broad, south-facing slope with a grade of about 8%, situated between the
Saddle Mountains The Saddle Mountains consists of an upfolded anticline ridge of basalt in Grant County of central Washington state. The ridge, reaching to 2,700 feet, terminates in the east south of Othello, Washington near the foot of the Drumheller Channel ...
and the Columbia River's Hanford Reach. It has been described as "basically a 13-mile-wide gravel bar" created by the
Glacial Lake Missoula Lake Missoula was a prehistoric proglacial lake in western Montana that existed periodically at the end of the last ice age between 15,000 and 13,000 years ago. The lake measured about and contained about of water, half the volume of Lake M ...
floods at the end of the last ice age about 15,000 years ago. Much of the Slope, part of the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, was added to the
Saddle Mountain National Wildlife Refuge The Hanford Reach National Monument is a national monument in the U.S. state of Washington. It was created in 2000, mostly from the former security buffer surrounding the Hanford Nuclear Reservation. The area has been untouched by development ...
in 1999. Much of the remainder is used for viniculture.


Human use

Washington State Route 24 extends from
Mattawa, Washington Mattawa is an incorporated city in Grant County, Washington, United States. The population was 3,335 at the 2020 census. History The town of Mattawa was originally platted in 1909 by E. and Eva Campbell, but was not incorporated at that tim ...
on the western edge of the Slope nearly due east–west. Mattawa is the only population center on the Slope. There was once a town of Wahluke and a Wahluke ferry that crossed the Columbia to the north of White Bluffs. The land was acquired by the U.S. government for the Hanford Nuclear Reservation and the residents, including Wanapum people, ordered to leave in 1943. In two actions in 1953 and 1958 the Atomic Energy Commission returned almost to public use, mostly for agriculture with irrigation recently provided by
Columbia Basin Project The Columbia Basin Project (or CBP) in Central Washington, United States, is the irrigation network that the Grand Coulee Dam makes possible. It is the largest water reclamation project in the United States, supplying irrigation water to over o ...
sources. Settlement on the Slope by non-Native Americans has been termed as troubled, initially due to lack of water, then later by the Federal Government's land policies, resulting in "sporadic" growth of the town of Mattawa.


Nuclear concerns

The potential for release of nuclear contaminants into the Slope in the event of a nuclear accident, and the historical atmospheric releases in the ranges of many Curies per month, are of concern to modern authors on Hanford.


Viniculture

Viniculture is a major agricultural activity on the Slope, with nearly of vinyards.


Notes


References

* * * * *


External links

*
Wahluke Slope map and discussion
at Wines Northwest {{Washington State hills and ridges Hills of Washington (state) Landforms of Adams County, Washington Landforms of Benton County, Washington Landforms of Grant County, Washington