Brian Bradley
WC Monitor
11/13/2015
Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown (D) on Monday called on Office of Management and Budget Director Shaun Donovan and Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to request $460 million to fully fund cleanup at the Portsmouth Site in fiscal 2017, and to provide more predictable funding for the site in the future, as hundreds of jobs could hang in the balance.
“Given the significant reliance DOE has placed on uranium disposition to fund cleanup activities, I believe DOE must develop a sustainable, long-term plan for cleanup work,” the lawmaker wrote in a letter to the two officials.
Congress on Oct. 1 passed a continuing resolution that funds the federal government at fiscal 2015 levels through Dec. 11 and includes an anomaly to give the Department of Energy the flexibility through its Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning (D&D) Fund to prevent some 500 layoffs that site D&D contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth announced in August. The company had said a budget shortfall of up to $81 million for the cleanup project in fiscal 2016 could force it this fall to lay off up to 36 percent of its roughly 1,400 employees working the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant in Piketon, Ohio. The government provided approximately $214 million for Portsmouth D&D activities in fiscal 2015, approximately $49 million more than what was included in the Senate Appropriations Committee’s May markup of the fiscal 2016 energy appropriations bill.
United Steelworkers Local 689 President Herman Potter said that if the project garnered that funding level through the fiscal 2016 appropriations bill, staffing levels could be maintained if global uranium prices stay consistent. As part of a barter agreement, the Energy Department transfers uranium to Portsmouth D&D contractor Fluor-BWXT Portsmouth, which then sells the radioactive element to metal commodities firm Traxys to fund cleanup work at the site. Between 2011 and the end of April 2015, DOE had provided $900 million worth of uranium to FBP.
On the other hand, Potter said, $400 million or more in fiscal 2017 Portsmouth funding could move FBP away from its reliance on uranium sales to maintain current staffing levels at the site.
Brown called on the Obama administration to make good on its 2009 commitment to accelerate Portsmouth cleanup. “The Administration’s commitment to an accelerated site cleanup ensures that our nation maintains its commitment to the people of Southeastern Ohio who for more than 50 years have supported critical enrichment activities,” the lawmaker stated in his letter. “Continued cleanup at the site is critical to the economy of Southern Ohio, a region still recovering from the recent economic downturn. These funds will help put people back to work cleaning up the site, reclaiming the site, and setting the stage for future redevelopment and reuse.”
DOE spokesman Steve Tetreault declined to comment on Brown’s plea, noting the department does not discuss unreleased funding requests. OMB did not respond to a request for comment.
Brown pointed out that budgetary shortfalls have prompted the issuance of 1,000 Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act notices at the site for the last two years, and said it would be “essential” for DOE to define a funding stream for Portsmouth clearer than the D&D account in order to meet its cleanup timelines at the site. In 2009, DOE pledged to accelerate Portsmouth cleanup and finish it by 2024, but the government has more recently said that work might not be finished until the mid- to late 2040s.
“I am concerned that despite undeniable progress at the site, the DOE continues to rely on uranium disposition to fund some cleanup activities and lacks a clear plan for maintaining the current workforce and the pace of site cleanup once the uranium runs out,” Brown wrote.
Brown asserted that Portsmouth workers deserve more than last-minute funding decisions that undermine job certainty, as appropriators have included funding anomalies in the last two CRs to sustain remediation operations at the site. “While a commitment from the DOE and Congress has resulted in the shortfall being eliminated and the jobs being saved, this process has been unfair to workers, the community, and the families that depend on these jobs,” he said in a statement.
Potter said his recent discussions with DOE and congressional appropriators have given him the impression that the two entities are “playing chicken with the [funding] number” for fiscal 2016. He called the recent unpredictability of funding “frustrating.” “We’re trying to get the site ready for reindustrialization, things like that, and they need to basically have a dedicated funding stream for us to do that, instead of just continuously moving money around.”
Brown in the letter also voiced support for the planned on-site disposal cell for demolition materials, saying it was “critical” to finance the project independent from funding for D&D work at the site.
