Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Burbank, WA

Burbank is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in Walla Walla County, Washington, located where the Snake River meets the Columbia River.

The confluence was the homeland of the Walla Walla tribe, and Meriwether Lewis and William Clark passed through the site on October 16, 1805, on their way to the Pacific Ocean.

A town was founded at the site in 1907, and the townsite was platted in 1910 by the Burbank Power and Water Company, making Burbank the oldest surviving community in Walla Walla County on the Columbia River.

Burbank was named by the Northern Pacific Railway for the Burbank Power and Water Company, which had itself been named for the famous horticulturist Luther Burbank.

Burbank first appeared as a census-designated place in the 1990 census and is the largest unincorporated community in Walla Walla County.

The 2020 census counted 3,499 people in Burbank, up from 3,291 in 2010; the 2000 census counted 3,303 people in 1,089 households.

Burbank lies just east of Pasco and Kennewick across the Snake and Columbia rivers and is part of the Tri-Cities urban area, even though it sits within the Walla Walla metropolitan area.

The community's landscape was transformed in 1953, when completion of McNary Dam downstream created Lake Wallula on the Columbia River.

Burbank is bisected by U.S. Highway 12 and the roughly 15,000-acre McNary National Wildlife Refuge, and the CDP covers about 15.0 square miles, of which 13.3 square miles are land and 1.7 square miles are water.

A bridge built over the Snake River in 1921 first connected Burbank with Pasco; it burned in 1949 and was rebuilt in 1952.