[Spunky]

"There’s a sort of amusing story about them wanting to reuse the land over a couple of warmish areas by putting a shopping center there, and then when people pointed out that it might be a bit of a risk of exposure they changed the plan to be a golf course. The plan got trash-canned. By golfers."

I have lived here for 50 yrs. or more. Never heard of that plan. They DID however build a golf course and now there are hotels etc; over what used to be the sewage treatment plant, which was called the Rose Bowl, because it was painted a pinkish color. That is just as you enter into Richland on George Washington Way.

[shotgun]

I worked for the City of Richland when they planned that development. Where the old Sham-Na-Pum golf course driving range was located was used as an old garbage dump site and they did find some hazardous stuff there but nothing radioactive

[Billthedrill]

I just ran into the infamous story's source in the hallway. It's apparently a running joke among the staffers there. They really do occasionally discuss what could be turned to another purpose but there was never a formal proposal or anything like that. He wasn't entirely jerking my chain but it isn't too likely ever to have been taken seriously.