Test Site budget cutbacks may quell cleanup effort

Thursday, Dec. 3, 1998 | 11:26 a.m.

A Nevada official said he was concerned that cuts in the Department of Energy's budget may not allow the federal agency to do essential clean up projects at the Nevada Test Site.

Instead of digging more wells for ground-water testing, the DOE may delay such an issue that is a top priority with the state, said Paul Liebendorfer, representing the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection on a Community Advisory Board that met Wednesday night.

The state also is concerned about the extent of soil contamination from 904 above- and below-ground nuclear weapons experiments at the Test Site, 65 miles northwest of Las Vegas, between 1951 and 1992, he said.

The DOE has signed a federal facilities agreement with the state that outlines certain cleanup monitoring and actions to meet compliance, Liebendorfer said. "If they fail to do the work to meet compliance, then there are fines and penalties," Liebendorfer said.

This week the DOE Nevada Operations Office learned it was receiving $10 million less than requested.

DOE Environmental Cleanup Manager Carl Gertz said his office asked for $90 million. But Congress pared the amount to $80 million.

Instead of drilling nine monitoring wells at the Test Site, the DOE will only bore six in 1999, he said.

"So we have to figure out where to cut back," Gertz said.

The conflict comes between compliance budget items on the state's list, such as ground-water monitoring, and activities mandated by Congress, Gertz said.

For example, Congress mandated a total of $2.6 million by a DOE grant to the Nevada Risk Assessment Management Program staff at UNLV's Harry Reid Center for Environmental Studies. Congress has since required the Nevada Operations office to pay the NRAMP. This year it got $1.1 million and $1.6 million in 1999, Gertz said.

The Test Site also has stored a few thousand barrels containing plutonium wastes destined for the Waste Isolation Pilot Project near Carlsbad, N.M.

The DOE has to begin checking the contents of those barrels before they are sent to WIPP, Gertz said. Congress approved $5 million for that task.

But the WIPP site may not open until 2000. The state of New Mexico has refused to issue environmental permits to allow the repository to operate and several lawsuits have been filed to prevent it from opening, Gertz said.

Liebendorfer urged the Community Advisory Board to focus the DOE on ground-water testing and soil cleanup standards.

Gov. Bob Miller wrote a letter to DOE headquarters, supporting full funding for the Test Site cleanup program.

So did Citizen Alert, a statewide environmental watchdog group, said Rick Nielsen, executive director from Las Vegas.

Gertz said the DOE plans to request $90 million again for 2000, but it whether the funding is approved or not is up to Congress. "We're fighting with other DOE sites nationwide," he said.