Bush plan for Hanford worries critics

By Katherine Pfleger

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Bush has proposed a new way to pay for Hanford nuclear reservation cleanup that has some critics concerned that funding to remove hazardous waste there will be inadequate.

In his annual budget proposal, delivered to Congress on Monday, Bush requested $6.7 billion to clean up former nuclear sites nationwide, the same amount legislators approved last year.

However, $800 million of the money was in a new "expedited cleanup account." Those funds would be doled out only after the parties involved in nuclear cleanup efforts make reforms to reduce risks, lower costs and get work done faster. Across the country, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is trying to hurry the cleanup of radioactive contamination at dozens of nuclear sites.

To create the new cleanup account, Bush wants to shave $262 million off Hanford’s funding. Congress approved $1.7 billion for the current budget year.

Marla Marvin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy in Richland, Wash., said Hanford would be in an "excellent position" to justify getting a good chunk of the $800 million account.

Even so, at least one watchdog organization thought it was a dangerous idea.

"It’s an unprecedented effort to politicize nuclear waste cleanup and to attempt to hold the funding hostage to gain a relaxation of cleanup agreements," said Heart of America Northwest Executive Director Gerald Pollet. "This isn’t about money. This is about urgent nuclear risks that will go unaddressed in 2003."

The president’s budget is just a blueprint that Congress will use to map out the yearlong spending period that begins Oct. 1. The plan was still vague about many details regarding Hanford, which was established in 1943 to help build the atomic bomb and is now home to 60 percent of the country’s high-level nuclear waste.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who worries Hanford waste could contaminate the nearby Columbia River, thought the administration was trying to force new negotiations and get out from a solid cleanup agreement signed by the federal Energy Department, Environmental Protection Agency and Washington state.

"I want to characterize (the policy) as ‘play ball or else,’ " Wyden said. "What I’ll do is try to block it, both as a member of the Senate Budget Committee and the Senate Energy Committee."

The Washington state attorney general’s office and state Department of Ecology were still examining the proposed funding.

"We need to dig in deeper," said Sheryl Hutchison, spokeswoman for the Ecology Department. "We know what we need" — $1.1 billion — "and anything less than that is unacceptable."

An aide to Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., whose district includes Hanford, tried to deflect criticism of the administration, saying that Hanford’s money will be available once efficiencies in cleanup work are established.

"My boss is concerned as well," spokesman Todd Young said. "But you have to keep in mind that there is this $800 million and there is a process under way for Hanford to access that."

While the budget proposed big increases for defense and homeland security, it also proposed steep cuts across a wide swath of other government programs from highway construction to farm subsidies.

Some notable items for the Northwest:

  • The budget doesn’t include details on funds for the Klamath Basin, where a water war has a host of interests seeking federal help. However, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said details will be developed in the coming months and forwarded to Congress.

  • Forest Service spending was cut. The administration is proposing a new agency structure that would reassign or relocate 750 people at the national and regional offices to other jobs in the field. And the administration wants to test a concept called "charter forests" that would have local trusts oversee some national forest lands, rather than the agency’s bureaucracy.

  • The budget was mum on funding for Seattle’s voter-approved Link light rail. However, later this week a separate federal report on transportation funding may indicate whether the administration will provide funds for the 14-mile rail line, designed to link downtown Seattle to a site just north of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

  • Salmon recovery money is scattered throughout the federal budget. In some accounts, Bush proposed figures that conservationists called inadequate, including the funding levels for the Columbia and Snake River salmon restoration. Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers’ Portland, Ore., office celebrated a proposed $20 million increase for salmon restoration in the 2003 budget year.

  • As previously reported, the administration proposed increasing the amount the Bonneville Power Administration can borrow from the U.S. Treasury by $700 million.

    Copyright ©2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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