Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, pledged last week to seek funds for possible replacement of a middle school closed three years ago after public disclosure of radioactive contamination on the campus near the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
Manchin, who also sits on the Senate Appropriations Committee, thinks it could cost around $20-to-$25-million to develop a suitable replacement for Zahn’s Corner Middle School, which sits in the shadow of the former Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant.
That is less than the $30-million estimate a local school intendent shared with Exchange Monitor two years ago. Final figures must still be calculated, Manchin said. Nevertheless, Manchin promised to take up the issue when the Senate resumes committee work Nov. 14.
Manchin attended what was dubbed as a listening session Thursday with parents and school officials in Piketon, Ohio. The West Virginia Democrat, known for occasionally bucking his own party’s leadership as well as President Joe Biden’s White House, appeared alongside Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio).
Ryan is a member of the House Appropriations Committee and is also engaged in a race against Republican author and venture capitalist J.D. Vance for the senate seat now held by incumbent Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is retiring from congress.
In a video clip, Manchin said he asked Ryan to set up the meeting with Piketon residents, several of whom cited cases of cancer in communities that surround the former gaseous diffusion plant. “This is not a Democrat or Republican [issue],” Manchin said. “Cancer does not have a political home. It will attack any family and any home.”
Uranium enrichment for nuclear weapons and nuclear power was “what the country needed at the time” the Portsmouth plant was running, Manchin said, adding residents should be compensated for sacrifices associated with contamination. “I will do everything I can in my power” to assist, Manchin said.
The senator from West Virginia has discussed Portsmouth with Ryan, Portman, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm prior to last week’s visit, Manchin said, adding he wanted to visit the community himself.
Zahn’s Corner Middle School closed in May 2019, after Northern Arizona University researchers reported soil and air samples contained enriched uranium and neptunium-237. The DOE said then there were only trace amounts present, too small to endanger human health.
Since the school shut down, federal lawsuits have been filed by local residents against current and former DOE contractors at Portsmouth, including one action brought by a father who blames contamination from the site for the cancer that took the life of his 13-year-old son.
