The fiscal 2023 omnibus budget that the 117th Congress passed just before adjourning before Christmas includes $20 million for replacement of a middle school that closed in May 2019 due to concern over radiological contamination from the Department of Energy’s adjacent Portsmouth Site in Piketon, Ohio.
The $20 million toward replacement of the Zahns Corner Middle School was cited in a Dec. 23 press release by Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), who chaired the House Appropriations Committee’s Energy and Water subcommittee until Republicans took control of the House on Tuesday.
“Families shouldn’t have to worry about whether or not the schools their children attend are safe,” said Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) in his own press release. “This investment will ensure that students in Pike County have a safe place to study free from radiation and help the Pike County community continue to recover.” Brown chairs the Energy and Water panel for the Senate Appropriations Committee.
In an October visit to the Portsmouth area, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) pledged to make school replacement funding a priority.
The Scioto Valley-Piketon Area Council of Governments praised Manchin, Kaptur, Brown as well as departing Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) for their work in securing the funding. Ryan lost to author J.D. Vance, a Republican, in a race to succeed retiring Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
“We will continue to hold DOE accountable when their activities release harmful contaminants into the environment and we will work together as partners to mitigate risks and invest in our future,” the Council of Governments said in a statement distributed Monday by Energy Communities Alliance. “It starts with community-focused education by building a new middle school.”
The school was closed and its students relocated after Northern Arizona University researchers reported that air and soil samples from the school contained enriched uranium and neptunium-237. The superintendent for the Scioto Valley Local School District said in August 2020 that construction of a new school could cost about $30 million.
Since the school closure, various lawsuits have been brought in federal court in Ohio alleging current and former federal contractors at the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant site failed to contain significant radioactive contamination.
