The House Appropriations Committee’s spending bill would provide the Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Site in Ohio with more funds than the White House sought for community and regulatory support, including setting up a liaison to localities around the former gaseous diffusion plant, Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) said Monday.
The fiscal 2022 appropriations package for Energy and Water Development that passed the full committee Friday by a 33-to-24 vote, and awaits action by the full House next week, would increase the Pension and Community and Regulatory Support line item for Portsmouth to almost $32 million, up from about $30 million in the current fiscal year and $5.5 million more than the $26.3 million request from the Joe Biden administration, according to the report that accompanies the bill.
Ryan, a candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) said in a press release that he worked with Energy and Water Development subcommittee Chair Marcy Kaptur to appropriate $500,000 for a community liaison post to provide technical and regulatory assistance to the local community – a position now staffed on an interim basis by longtime DOE manager Candice Robertson.
The bill would also require DOE to continue its air and ground water monitoring and increase the frequency of its reporting. The agency must also draw up a long-term land use plan for Portsmouth and consult with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to try to ascertain “whether an epidemiological study or review of cancer rates is warranted following the independent monitoring” around the closed Zahn’s Corner Middle School, according to the bill report.
The school, within seven miles of the Portsmouth Site, has been closed for more than two years after evidence of radioactive contamination was found on the grounds.
Portsmouth cleanup spending via the Uranium Enrichment Decontamination and Decommissioning Fund would increase to $467.5 million in the fiscal year starting Oct. 1, under the bill House appropriators have approved. That’s level with the DOE request and up from the fiscal 2021 level of $430.3 million.
