Bush's Hanford plan raises debate

Critics say funding will not adequately handle safety issues

KATHERINE PFLEGER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- President Bush has proposed a new way to pay for Hanford nuclear reservation cleanup that has some critics concerned that funding to remove hazardous waste there will be inadequate.

In his annual budget proposal, delivered to Congress on Monday, Bush requested $6.7 billion to clean up former nuclear sites nationwide, the same amount legislators approved last year.

However, $800 million of the money was in a new "expedited cleanup account."

Those funds would be doled out only after the parties involved in nuclear cleanup efforts make reforms to reduce risks, lower costs and get work done faster. Across the country, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham is trying to hurry the cleanup of radioactive contamination at dozens of nuclear sites.

To create the new cleanup account, Bush wants to shave $262 million off Hanford's funding. Congress approved $1.7 billion for the current budget year.

Marla Marvin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Energy in Richland, said Hanford would be in an "excellent position" to justify getting a good chunk of the $800 million account.

Even so, at least one watchdog organization thought it was a dangerous idea.

Some notable items for the Northwest:

-Forest Service spending was cut.

The administration is also proposing a new agency structure that would reassign or relocate 750 people at the national and regional offices to other jobs in the field. And the administration wants to test a concept called "charter forests" that would have local trusts oversee some national forest lands, rather than the agency.

-The budget was mum on funding for Seattle's voter-approved Link light rail. However, later this week a separate federal report on transportation funding may indicate whether the administration will provide funds for the 14-mile rail line, designed to link downtown Seattle to a site just north of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

-Salmon recovery money is scattered throughout the federal budget.

In some accounts, Bush proposed figures that conservationists called inadequate, including the funding levels for the Columbia and Snake River salmon restoration. Meanwhile, the Army Corps of Engineers' Portland office celebrated a proposed $20 million increase for salmon restoration in the 2003 budget year.

-As previously reported, the administration proposed increasing the amount the Bonneville Power Administration can borrow from the U.S. Treasury by $700 million.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

back to main Home Page Stories index