DOE Cutting Hanford Budget?
There was a time when many folks concerned about the Hanford Cleanup mission thought DOE would just put up a big fence around the site and walk away. In many respects, that changed during the Clinton administration and Hanford funding and progress started to take a turn for the better. The uncomfortable aspect of that era was the loss of benefits and pensions under the “Enterprise” contracts. Which basically put folks “outside the fence” for traditional worker benefits provided on the site for those who were transitioned to companies that could generate non-Hanford work (For the most part, only one company really managed to effectively make that model work). For many workers that was a bit demoralizing to say the least. [Update 02-05-08: News about those benefits from the Tri-City Herald's Chris Mullick today]
The Bush administration historically hasn’t terribly underfunded Hanford. But today’s budget announcement looks like that could be coming to an end.
The budget, excluding direct Department of Energy costs, would drop from $1.952 billion to $1.916 billion under the proposal released to Congress on Monday.
That probably sounds like a whole lotta money! But in the grand scheme of things, the impact for bringing talented problem solving people to Hanford is diminished when cuts like this happen. Why would the best and brightest come here if decreasing the work force is on the agenda on top of historical reductions and uncertainty?
The DOE Hanford Richland Operations Office budget would drop from $983 million to $938 million, which would decrease the work force by about 500. Although more money would be spent on ground water cleanup, there would be a slowdown in work to retrieve temporarily buried waste in central Hanford and send it offsite for disposal at a national repository for transuranic waste. There also would be less money for demolition of buildings in the 300 Area just north of Richland.
I don’t think the alarm bells should ring just yet. This still has to go through the house and senate where our federal legislators Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray will obviously have something to say (I would fully expect Doc Hastings to get on board as well). It also could put some heat on DOE as they will surely come under fire from Governor Chris Gregiore over any pull back in funding the Hanford mission. The Governor has historically been more than willing to play hardball with DOE over Hanford cleanup.
Update: From Doc Hastings Web:
For much of Hanford, the proposed budget is adequate, but I am disturbed by the proposals for deep cuts at the River Corridor Closure project and TRU waste retrievals, as well as the flat-line of tank farm work.
It is very dismaying to see DOE just throw up its hands and say they can’t meet legal cleanup milestones. DOE claims missed milestones aren’t just a result of funding shortfalls, but that’s difficult to accept when the overall cleanup budget is $1 billion lower than just three years ago.
During their tenure, this Administration has gone from providing record levels of cleanup funding to this proposal that leaves the major sites struggling to meet legal cleanup milestones. What was once a historic commitment to our states and communities has largely evaporated.
(Click here for more information on the proposed budget for the Department of Energy.)
(Yeah but, you are still supporting making permenant the Bush tax cuts right? Can you support both restoring Hanford funding, and the tax cuts, and look legitimate? It’s a quandry of free cake eating and the limited government message you promote that doesn’t equate.)
[Update Update: The Gov. and many of the Wa delegation chime in]
“The budget proposed today is more than $600 million short of what is necessary to achieve even a minimal level of compliance,” Gov. Chris Gregoire said in a statement. “This budget, if passed into law, will further delay a cleanup that is already behind schedule.”
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