The Donald Trump administration’s fiscal 2018 budget request for the Hanford Site’s Richland Operations Office is inadequate, regulators for the Department of Energy facility in Washington state said Wednesday during discussions at a Hanford Advisory Board meeting and a public budget meeting.
The proposed $800 million for the office – which includes security and cybersecurity funds – might not be enough for DOE to meet its obligations under the Tri-Party Agreement governing cleanup at Hanford, said John Price, the Washington state Department of Ecology’s Tri-Party Agreement section manager. “If we do get the president’s mark, we will be in serious trouble,” said Dennis Faulk, Hanford program manager for the Environmental Protection Agency.
The Richland Operations Office, which oversees cleanup at Hanford’s river corridor and central plateau, requires $560 million annually for “mortgage” expenses, Faulk said. Those costs include basics such as operating utilities and keeping the site in a minimum safe condition. In addition, it will need roughly $80 million for security, he said. That leaves little more than $150 million for a long list of cleanup projects planned in fiscal 2018, according to the EPA official.
Planned work starting Oct. 1 includes ongoing preparations to move K Basin sludge to central Hanford; backfilling the 618-10 Burial Ground; continued cleanup of waste sites near the K Reactors; purchasing equipment for remediation of the 324 Building spill; preparations to move cesium and strontium capsules to dry storage; and remediation of contaminated groundwater. DOE has not yet released a breakout of proposed Richland Operations Office funding.
“Our position is we don’t have enough funding at current funding levels to do the work that needs to be done,” let alone if there are cuts, said Randy Bradbury, communication manager for Ecology.
The Tri-City Development Council said the Richland Operations Office budget request does not reflect the reality of the extensive cleanup work that remains to be done in central Hanford, even while significant progress has been made on the river corridor. It also does not reflect the need to address Hanford’s aging facilities and degraded infrastructure, as highlighted by the May 9 discovery of the partial collapse of a waste storage tunnel for the PUREX plant, TRIDEC said in a letter to the Washington state congressional delegation.
The Richland Operations Office should receive $1 billion in funding for fiscal 2018 to meet Tri-Party Agreement obligations, according to TRIDEC. But TRIDEC is proposing an increase over current funding of $75 million, which would include $15 million for risk mitigation of aging facilities.
According to the calculations of the staff of Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the administration’s request would reduce spending by the Richland Operations Office – not including security – by about $124 million. TRIDEC figured at that level about 700 positions would be cut and the 324 Building cleanup work, groundwater remediation, and K Basin sludge removal could be put at risk.
Congress ultimately will set funding levels for all federal agencies, and the Washington state congressional delegation will be focused on funding for cleanup operations at Hanford.
The budget request for DOE’s Office of River Protection at Hanford would be compliant with legal requirements for fiscal 2018, but would require “a big lift” in the next fiscal year, said Jon Peschong, DOE one system director for the office overseeing management of 56 million gallons of chemical and radioactive waste from former plutonium production at Hanford. The proposed fiscal 2018 budget would increase spending by about $5 million over the current budget. TRIDEC called for an increase of $16 million over current spending for the waste storage tank farms and an increase of $157 million to $850 million for the Waste Treatment Plant to help meet court-ordered requirements that low-activity waste be treated by 2023 and the entire plant be operating by 2036.
