Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette said Thursday he was not sure who developed the proposal to transfer management of a nuclear cleanup program back to his agency from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The proposed relocation of the Formerly Utilized Sites Remedial Action Program (FUSRAP) is featured in the fiscal 2021 budget proposals for the Energy Department and Army Corps. With congressional approval, DOE would take ownership of program funding, paying the Army Corps to continue on-site management of the work that is now paid through its own annual budget.
The two agencies also recommended the swap in their spending plans for the current fiscal 2020, but Congress rejected the notion in appropriations legislation signed into law in December.
“Whose idea is that? Is it OMB’s or DOE?” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) asked Brouillette during a House Appropriations energy and water subcommittee hearing on DOE’s 2021 budget request. “That didn’t seem like an additional layer of government that would be necessary or very efficient in cleaning up these sites.”
“It’s a fair point, sir,” Brouillette responded. “I don’t know where the idea originated but I’d be happy to get back to you, if you don’t mind.”
In a hearing before the same panel last year, Assistant Army Secretary for Civil Works R.D. James suggested the Energy Department was driving the plan.
Since 1974, FUSRAP has been tasked with remediation of properties contaminated from the 1940s to 1960s by federal nuclear weapons and nuclear energy projects. The Energy Department owned the program until 1997, when Congress ordered it relocated to the Army Corps of Engineers.
FUSRAP currently manages 23 active cleanup sites in 10 states. It is budgeted at $200 million for the federal budget year ending Sept. 30. The Department of Energy wants $150 million in fiscal 2021, which begins Oct. 1.
The program would be managed through DOE’s Office of Legacy Management, which already determines which sites are eligible for inclusion in FUSRAP and conducts long-term monitoring once cleanup is completed.
Both agencies touted the benefits of transferring the program in their latest spending rollouts earlier this month.
“The Army Corps would continue to perform cleanup of FUSRAP sites on a reimbursable basis with DOE,” the Army Corps said in a press release. “This proposal would enable DOE to consider a broader range of federal cleanup efforts in prioritizing work each year, thereby increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of Federal cleanup efforts.”
“Similar to the approach the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and USACE executes the Superfunds program, this alignment will enhance LM and USACE’s partnership and lead to operational efficiencies required for more complex FUSRAP sites,” DOE said in its budget in brief.
Simpson questioned the need for the move last year. He appeared to remain unconvinced as of Thursday. “I’m not necessarily opposed to it, I just don’t see what the value of it is.”
Brouillette became energy secretary in December aftter more than two years as deputy secretary at DOE.
