The House of Representatives member whose district includes the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant expressed alarm Monday at reports the Donald Trump administration might pull the plug on the building housing DOE’s Carlsbad Field Office.
Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) is “deeply concerned about reports indicating that the General Services Administration (GSA) is planning to terminate the lease for the Skeen-Whitlock Building” which houses the DOE Carlsbad Field Office, he said in a press release. Vasquez said the facility is vital to the operation of the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), the nation’s only deep underground repository for defense-related transuranic waste.
The New Mexico lawmaker said in the release he has requested an “urgent meeting” with DOE and GSA officials on the matter.
A news website called NOTUS reported Monday that GSA, at the behest of the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, is looking to terminate the lease for the Skeen-Whitlock Building.
The 93,000 square foot facility includes an emergency operations center, an auditorium with sloped fixed-seating, a two-story atrium lobby, an exercise gym, and a full-service cafeteria, according to a website for real estate company Cowperwood Company.
“This facility is central to the management and disposal of defense-related nuclear waste,” Vasquez said. “Its closure could severely disrupt WIPP operations, leading to delays in waste disposal and compromising the safety protocols established to protect both the public and the environment.”
The Carlsbad office, which is overseeing a number of infrastructure upgrades at WIPP, has already undergone sizable reductions in force over the past month, the lawmaker said.
A spokesperson said Tuesday DOE hopes to issue an update soon regarding the lease situation.
