Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week called for a $250 million increase in funding for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP).
The plus-up would bring funding in fiscal 2020 to $400 million for the nuclear cleanup program, compared to $150 million in the current federal budget year and the new $141 million request from the Trump administration.
Additional funding is necessary to ensure the FUSRAP Niagara Falls Storage Site in Lewiston, N.Y., gets the money it needs to advance environmental remediation, according to a press release from Schumer’s office.
FUSRAP identifies and remediates sites throughout the United States that were contaminated from the 1940s to 1960s by U.S. nuclear weapons and energy programs.
The 191-acre Niagara Falls Storage Site contains radioactive waste and residue left by uranium ore processing in the region. In March, the Army Corps announced a record of decision for an estimated $490.6 million program to excavate and remove 280,000 cubic yards of contaminated soil. The project could take eight to 10 years, with roughly $60 million in annual funding, according to the Schumer press release.
An Army Corps spokesman said Wednesday that at current program funding levels, some FUSRAP projects would have to be completed before the Niagara Falls program could begin. There was no immediate schedule for that to occur.
Schumer called on the Army Corps to expedite the Niagara Falls project and for his colleagues on Capitol Hill to provide the full $400 million for FUSRAP. Congressional Appropriations committees have not yet released any funding bills for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.
Schumer’s press release made no mention of the administration’s proposal to shift FUSRAP from the Army Corps to the Department of Energy, which managed the program for more than two decades after its 1974 inception.
